Hidden Talents
by Cake-ya-san
Summary: X-Men: First Class, Banshee/OC, slight AU, If you can't be yourself when surrounded by people like you...then how can you ever be comfortable with who you are? Don't hide who you are...Mutant and proud!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: don't own x-men first class, x-men the comics, x-men anything. I'm just using the characters for artistic creativity.

Pairing: BansheexOC,

Hidden Talents

Children should be seen and not heard

_In the original form of this proverb it was specifically young women who were expected to keep quiet. This opinion is recorded in the 15th century collections of homilies written by an Augustinian clergyma called [John] __Mirk's Festial__, circa 1450_

There were only a few of life's lessons that little Evelyn (Evie) Hubble knew would keep you alive:

When he got angry; you ran,

when he drank; you hid,

when he yelled; you wished you were invisible,

and when he hit; you wanted someone to come and save you

No one was coming to save you.

Her life hadn't always been like this. Evie remembered a time when there was laughter and sunshine, where love was found in hugs and kisses and a time when she felt warm and safe. After her mother had died the cold came. Her father stopped looking after her so she learnt to adapt, what to cook, how to clean, how to be quiet. But sometimes, like now, she wished so very hard that he couldn't find her, that she would just disappear.

"EVIE! Get back HERE!" the yell reverberated the room and Evie shuffled further into the closet making herself as small as possible, her large green eyes wide with fright and her hands shook as she covered her mouth to stop any sound from escaping. She didn't know what she had done this time, but Evie knew that it didn't really matter; he would always find something that was wrong and blame her for it. That should be another of life's rules: it was always your fault. Sometimes he couldn't find her, sometimes she outsmarted him and if he went to sleep he usually forgot all about it. She hoped that this was one of those times.

BANG! Evie jumped and sobbed as she hit the door accidently in her fright and the door creaked open. Looking up through her dirty blonde hair she watched a sinister grin spread across her father's face, his eyes were bloodshot and he reeked of alcohol, his hair a tangle of grease; he had once been handsome a long time ago. He stumbled towards her, waving a fist in anger.

"Ready or not here I come," he growled. Evie closed her eyes tightly shut, her little hands clenched around her knees and she buried her head against her chest, making herself as small a target as possible.

"If I can't see him he can't see me, if I can't see him he can't see me." She whispered furiously through her frightened tears. Her breathing was so loud in her ears that it took a while before she realised that her father had stopped and was staring straight at her with a strangely stupefied expression on his face.

"Where'd she go?"

XxXxXxXxXxXx

"Charles, are you sure this is the place?" Erik asked, leaning casually against the wall surveying the large crowd of young adults drinking and laughing in the bar. He turned to look at the telepath next to him and rolled his eyes. Charles stood with his fingers against his temple to focus his mutant powers to help him find their next recruit. They already had the girl 'Angel' and the boy 'Darwin' waiting for them back at the base getting the grand tour by Raven and Hank. They had spent the entire day sitting in this bar trying to find the next recruit and were not having much luck.

"She's here, I know it. It's like she's deflecting me or something. Do you think she has a mind shield that is protecting her from me? Like a natural one?" Charles asked Erik as he scanned the room again. It would be fascinating if that was true. He was so excited that they were finding more and more mutants hidden among them. How well they adapted to their surroundings so as not to be caught. It was a dream come true to have the resources and the support to find others like himself and help them to understand that they were not alone.

"There, she's hard to look at, it's like my eyes keep sliding off of her." Erik pointed to the far side of the bar, near the pool tables. A tall skinny girl with dark blonde hair plaited over her shoulder, in clothes a little too big for her stood watching them from across the room. Charles grinned as his eyes did slide away from her and his mind tried to tell him that there wasn't a girl there.

"Shall we go over and introduce ourselves, dear friend?" Charles grinned up at Erik, his blue eyes lighting up like a child's on Christmas. Erik laughed and gestured his friend to lead the way. They both swerved around slightly tipsy people and made their way to the young girl's side. She stared at them with wide green eyes, her face pale and lips thinned into a frown.

"Hello, I'm Charles Xavier and this is Erik Lensherr. We were wondering if we could have a moment of your time to have a little chat about something."

The girl's frown pulled her eyebrows severely over her eyes and she looked first to her left and then to her right before staring straight at them and pointing to herself.

"Me?"She gasped disbelievingly, tilting her head to the side wondering if this was some sort of joke.

"Yes, you miss…?" Charles asked frankly, placing a hand in front of him to shake.

"Ah…I'm Evie." She shook Charles hand hesitantly and then turned to Erik to do the same.

"You have a fascinating mutation; do you know the extent of your powers?"

"Perhaps we should go somewhere more private?" Erik stated, glancing at the crowded bar with a wary eye. Charles nodded his head and tucked Evie's hand around his arm and led her towards the door. Her lips trembled lightly and she turned her head from Erik to Charles several times.

"How can you even see me?" she inquired.

"Here we are, if you'd just step inside the car we can talk all about it on the way." Charles stated, helping the young girl into the automobile. Evie shook her head, trying to come out of the dream she was in.

"Where are we going? Who are you people?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Evie couldn't believe she had even gotten in the car with these men. It was the shock of it she told herself. The shock of people actually seeing her, and talking to her. Usually she had to force people to see her, and here were two men who had seen her, spoken to her and told her she was a mutant. Tonight was going to be a very strange night. They spoke of the CIA and the evil mutant Sebastian Shaw and how they were being recruited to help the government find and capture dangerous mutant criminals.

They spent most of the time talking about themselves, how they had known most of their lives that they were different, special. They spoke of their mutant powers and of the others they had recruited. They even laid ground rules down for while in the CIA off site building, where she could go and what they would be doing while there.

When they arrived the building rose up high into the night sky, tall glass windows shone in the moonlight. Evie could make out the guards patrolling around. She realised as she stepped out of the car that she didn't have a change of clothes with her or toiletries. Frowning at the two men who flanked her sides as they walked towards the front entrance to sign her in she understood suddenly that they had known before hand she was going to come with them. She felt like she had been outwitted or outmanoeuvred in a game she hadn't even known she was playing. These men were good at what they did, that was probably why they were the recruiters.

After signing confidentiality/secrecy papers, having her fingerprints documented and sworn in to the CIA mutant division which Evie hid her laughter behind a shaking hand, she followed Charles and Erik down corridor after corridor before reaching a door that looked like every other door within the compound. Evie frowned again as they opened the door and stepped inside to a small recreation room that housed four other young people.

"Charles your back!" there was a blur of black and gold and then a young women with a bright smile slammed into Charles and swung around in an exuberant hug. Erik smoothly pulled himself away from the others to watch the introductions.

"Yes Raven, now, this young woman whom we have with us is the lovely Evie. Evie this is my dearest, closest friend Raven." Charles introduced, smiling just as happily as the girl wrapped in his arms.

Evie smiled tentatively and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you," she said as the energetic Raven pumped her hand quickly before spinning out of Charles arms and pulling the quiet Evie behind her.

"Come, meet the others." Raven led Evie over to the others who were seated on the couches eating their dinner. "This is Hank, he's really smart and I'm sure you'll get to know just how smart once he starts to talk about all of his inventions. This is Angel, she was the first one that Charles and Erik found and this is Darwin, he used to be a taxi driver." Raven said before pushing Evie down into a seat and sitting next to her. "Everyone this is Evie, our newest recruit, welcome."

"Uh…hi." Evie stuttered, feeling like she must be dreaming. Every single person in the room was looking at her, could see her and was smiling at her. Darwin grinned and shook her hand.

"I felt the same way when they came and got me. Don't worry, we all thought 'what the heck am I doing,' but, it's pretty groovy to be here and not be afraid to be ourselves." He said sitting back in his seat and taking a drink of his coca cola.

"Ha, I thought these guys were a bit off when they came and found me." Angel laughed as she waved at Erik and Charles who were standing off to the side watching the new mutants get to know each other. Both laughed and waved before going back to their own conversation. "But…it's nice to know you're not alone, yeah. We can be ourselves, we don't have to hide while where in here."

Evie nodded her head and accepted the cola Darwin handed to her, taking a drink and looking around the room.

"So how many of us are they going to recruit?" she asked nodding over to the two older mutants by the wall.

Raven grinned and held up three fingers. "Only three more, Charles chose six of you to start with, he said that with the variety of mutations that we have we should be a well rounded team. But-" and here she paused for dramatic effect, sitting forward in her seat and waited until the others leaned toward her before continuing "-we have to wait until everyone gets here for the big unveiling of our mutations." She smiled as the others laughed and sat back sipping at their drinks and eating their dinner. Raven made sure that their newest recruit had something to eat before relaxing back into her seat and letting the small talk wash over her.

"I just have one more question." Evie said, stopping the flow of casual talk. "What am I to do for clothes?" she asked. The others laughed and before she could ask why they were laughing a pile of clothes landed in her lap with a small toiletry case on top.

"Compliments of the CIA," Hank said with a roll of his eyes. "One size fits all."

"Come on, I'll show you to your room." Raven interrupted the laughter and pulled Evie to her feet. "I'm sure you're tired."

The two mutant girls left the room via a back door to the recreation room the others were in, Evie with her hands wrapped around her CIA care package. The corridor was silent and had ten identical doors lining the hall. Gesturing to the number 7 on the door she opened the door and turned the light on then turned and spread her arms out.

"Tada!" Raven sang, sitting down on the small cot within the room and opening the drawers next to the cot so that Evie could put her clothes away. "Home away from home, it's not too bad and we only sleep in here so it's ok, really." She assured after looking at Evie's tentative look. Evie sighed and sat down next to the other blonde and tucked her feet under her and leant back against the wall.

"I don't even really know what I'm doing here." Evie whispered tiredly. "They said come and I came." Shaking her head she closed her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest. Sliding her eyes open and towards Raven she shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. Raven laughed and patted her shoulder.

"Charles did the same with me when I was a child, well we were both children. He said stay and I did…hm, now that I think of it, it may be that part of Charles' mutation is persuasion." Raven shook her head and shrugged back. "Whatever it is, you're here now, your safe and your around others like you. It's hard not to feel excited and happy you know?"

Evie laughed and nodded. "I know. I think I'll go to bed now, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Raven said, standing up and heading to the door. "Tomorrow." Then the door was closed behind her and Evie sat staring at the spot she had just vacated, eyes unfocussed.

"Huh, I think I could get used to people seeing me." Smiling she changed into the CIA tracksuit, brushed her teeth, washed her face and then settled herself into bed. A girl could get used to being noticed.

XxXxXxXxX

Evie opened her eyes and sat up quickly as the sound of raised voices could be heard down the corridor. Rubbing her eyes tiredly she stumbled out of bed, pulled her hair back into a messy pony tail and walked out of her room, down the corridor and into the rec room only to come to a stop to take in the scene before her. Angel stood in the middle of the room, clad in small black shorts and a tank top, hands on her hips and red in the face. Hank was off to the side trying to hide his laughter and failing; Raven stood next to him and punched his shoulder trying to hide her own amusement. Darwin stood in front of Angel, his hands held out to her trying to pacify her and failing miserably by the looks of it as she continued to shout. It was only as she moved further into the room that she realised it wasn't Darwin Angel was yelling at but the young red haired boy behind Darwin, his hands in his pockets, shoulders casually slouched and a wicked grin on his face.

"What happened?" she asked, covering a yawn as she made her presence known. Angel turned to her and pointed around Darwin, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"That, that boy purposely fell into my chest, the pervert!" she screeched. "I thought I wouldn't have to put up with this here." She took a step forward towards the boy and was stopped by Darwin who was whispering furiously, trying to get her to calm down. Evie watched all of this with interest and then laughed out loud as the 'pervert' swung a wink in her direction.

"Who are you?" she asked, moving around the pinball machine and towards the couches before sitting heavily down into one. She was joined by Raven who stared unabashedly at Angel, Darwin and the new boy.

"He's a pervert, that's who he is." Angel snarled in disgust before pushing Darwin out of her way and she stormed from the room in a huff. Raven giggled and swung her feet up onto the couch with her.

"So pervert, you got a name?" Raven asked as the other three males sat down on the couches around them. The red haired boy laughed, pouted his lips lightly and shrugged.

"'Course." He said. "Mutant recruit no.8, but you can call me Sean Cassidy."

"Where are Charles and Erik and how did you get in here?" Hank asked pushing his glasses up his nose.

"They took off as soon as they pushed me through that door and I fell into Miss Hissy Fit." Sean laughed, running a hand through his messy hair.

Evie snorted and then shrunk back into her seat when everyone turned to look at her. It would take some getting used to, she thought, now that people could see her and took notice of the things she did and said. Shrugging awkwardly she pointed a finger at the new guy. "You looked pretty happy for 'accidentally falling into her'." She stated, a smile on her face.

Sean smirked and slid his eyes over to her shrugging. "What can I say? I've just got all the luck."

The others burst out laughing and Evie thought, 'this is what life is supposed to be like.'

TBC


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Some characters, scenes and sentences were taken from the movie, don't own anything.

Chapter 1

_A man is known by the company he keeps_

"I'm bored," Sean muttered, his eyes sliding sideways to look at the three girls sitting on the couch talking with each other. Hank shuffled his feet while he continued reading his book, making notes in the margin and muttering under his breath and Darwin stood at the pinball machine trying to beat his own high score.

"Hey, who wants to go for a run around the gardens?" He called out, standing up and adjusting his clothes while slipping his shoes back onto his feet. The others looked at him and then around the room before staring at him again, confused looks on their faces.

"Where are you going to run? What gardens?" Darwin asked, stepping away from the pinball machine and rubbing his hands. "I could do with a bit of exercise. Plus I'd like to get out of this room for a bit as well."

Pointing at the glass window that showed the pretty manicured lawn with a statue in the centre and a walkway surrounding it that was being patrolled by CIA agents, Sean walked towards the door leading out of the rec room and into the rest of the CIA off base compound. "That garden."

"I'll come." Hank and Evie said at the same time. They looked at each other before grinning.

Raven laughed and shook her head. "I'm fine right here, you all have fun." She said and then returned to her conversation with Angel while Evie pulled her sweatshirt over her head and followed the three boys out of the door.

"Where are you going?" Standing in front of them was a CIA agent, arms folded across his chest and a frown on his face.

"Well, agent…-"

"-Lanley."

"-Lanley, we're just going for a run outside, you can come and babysit us if you have to." Sean offered as he sauntered passed, hands deep in his pockets. Hank shrugged and rubbed the back of his head and Darwin nodded happily to the agent who grumbled but followed silently behind Evie as the four mutants made their way outside.

The air was crisp and a stiff wind pulled at their hair and clothes as they stepped outside.

"Not really much of a track, but it's better than nothing." Darwin pointed out, stretching his hamstrings and shaking out his hands, jumping on the spot to warm himself up. Evie rolled her shoulders and loosened her muscles as Hank and Sean watched their other two companions ready themselves.

"If you're done?" Sean asked cheekily with a raised eyebrow before setting off around the garden path. Evie laughed and nudged Darwin who clapped Hank on his shoulder.

"Come on then." And the three other mutants took off after the red head.

They passed CIA agents on the way, Evie dodging around them as they came into her path. Hank looked next to him as yet another CIA agent was dodged by the blonde next to him and he frowned in thought.

"Why are you doing that?" He asked as they passed the rec room window and waved at Raven and Angel as they passed.

"Doing what?" Evie brushed her hair out of her eyes and turned to Hank in confusion.

"Go around the agents, they get out of everyone else's way." He stated and pointed ahead where Sean and Darwin were jogging and to the CIA agent who stepped off the path to allow them to pass. He then stepped back onto the path, right in Evie's way and she jogged around him shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm a girl?" She asked, her brows furrowed as she looked behind her and shook her head as she looked back at Hank. "I've done it all my life, it's just a reflex, and people just don't seem to notice me." She then grinned up at Hank. "We should overtake the slow pokes in front of us." She challenged and then put on a burst of speed before pushing in between the two young mutants ahead of her.

"Hey!" They both cried out as they stumbled off the path and were overtaken by Evie and Hank.

"Snooze you lose." Evie laughed as she skipped around another agent and continued her run.

"Huh." Sean grinned before turning to Darwin next to him and slapping him on the shoulder "IT!" he yelled before taking off, running around Hank and then off the path to avoid Darwin who ran up behind Hank and slapped him on the back.

"IT!" Darwin called, laughing and running away from Hank. Stopping and watching the others run away from him laughing and happy Hank shook his head, dark hair falling into his eyes and he smiled. Charging after the others Hank was intent on not being it for much longer.

They ran around the garden, hiding behind the statue, pushing each other in the path of the IT person and laughing, cheeks rosy with exertion and cold, eyes bright with happiness.

"What are you doing?" The shout caused all four mutants to stop where they were and turn to the voice. Standing with arms folded was CIA Agent Black.

Sean shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his track pants and flopped his hair forward to look out from under his fringe.

"Excising." He said with a smirk and took a step towards the agent. "You want to join us?" he asked his smirk growing as the agent flushed and shook his head.

"If you want to exercise you could use the exercise yard." He pointed out, gesturing for the mutants to follow him. The four looked at each other, shrugged and then followed after each other and Agent Black.

Agent Black led the group of mutants through the halls of the CIA off site compound and to the other side, opening up a door and smiling brightly as he led them inside.

"I didn't even know we had this here." Hank said, walking into the room and admiring the equipment. He nodded at the few other CIA agents in the room who were using the equipment, before turning back to Agent Black.

"Well you didn't really leave your lab now, did you Hank?"

"Ah…yes, well." Hank stammered adjusting his glasses.

"It's ok, whenever you want to exercise just ask the agent stationed outside your door and they will take you there, you can also eat in the mess hall with the other agents for your meals. When you want to go back to your rooms just ask Agent Lanley." Agent Black instructed, pointing out the agent that had followed them inside.

The room was filled with weights, skipping ropes, medicine balls and other equipment the young mutants had never seen before. Through the window they could see the exercise yard that Agent Black had spoken about and they grinned at each other happily as they stepped into the room further to experiment with the new equipment.

"We should bring Angel and Raven next time." Evie said, picking up a medicine ball and almost dropping it on her feet with the unexpected weight. Grunting in effort she put it back down laughing. Turning to the others she watched them lift and test the weight of things.

"Well, if were supposedly the mutant branch of the CIA, then maybe we should start excising and getting in to shape for when we have to go out and capture our first bad guy." Darwin mused. Sean glanced over at the others a smile on his face.

"Do you think they'll give us black suits and fake names as well?" He asked, a sly smile on his face. "'Cause I can come up with a better name then Agent Black." The others laughed and turned to Agent Lanley.

"So what's your real name?" Evie asked the agent, eyes wide with curiosity.

"That's classified." The Agent said stiffly. He frowned as they then doubled up with laughter, clutching their stomachs and supporting each other in their mirth. Agent Lanley did not understand what was so funny. Huffing he gestured to the door.

"Would you like to go back to your rooms?" He asked them, trying to stop their laughter.

"Do you know the way?" Evie asked.

"Yes."

"Will you tell us how to get there?"

"Yes, but either myself or another agent must accompany you wherever you go within the compound."

"Why?"

"It's my job."

"What is your job?"

Before Agent Lanley could answer the red head spoke up, a frown on his serious face.

"It's classified." Sean said before his serious face split into a wide grin and the four mutants cracked up laughing again.

"Kids." Agent Lanley huffed before herding the mutants out of the room and down the corridor.

XxXxXxXxXx

The mess hall was filled with CIA agents, most of them were dressed in their black suits, hair parted and slicked back. There was a hum of noise as they all talked with each other in the white, plain room. Tables and chairs were also plain and symmetrical. Everything looked the same as everything else that it was strange to see a mix of young adults within that group of sameness. They stuck out like a sore thumb. Evie and the boys still wore their track suits from their earlier play while the girls wore their own clothes while amongst the CIA agents.

Raven weaved her way to the line and pulled the others after her. They ignored the stares of the Agents and were polite as they were given their dinner for the night. Raven selected a table away from the other CIA Agents and sat down to wait for the others before she started to eat her dinner.

Angel and Hank both made it through the crowd and settled their trays down on either side of Raven, taking a seat. Sean and Darwin followed closely behind, smiling and laughing as they joked about the sameness of their dinners.

"So, what do you guys want to do tomorrow?" Darwin asked as he sat down and repositioned his dinner so that it was easier for him to eat. The others shrugged.

"I think I'll come with you all tomorrow to the exercise yard. I'm getting bored waiting for Charles and Erik to actually be here to tell us what they want us to do." Raven stated thoughtfully as she twirled a strand of blonde hair around her finger, her eyes following the progress of their final member as she walked carefully towards them, stepping out of the way of everyone. "Oh dear." She muttered and stood up from her seat quickly as the inevitable happened.

Evie had been doing fine, balancing her tray and walking around the Agents that came towards her, she however had not anticipated an Agent pushing his chair back, into her as she side stepped around another agent who was coming towards her. She dropped her tray on the seated Agent and fell hard to the ground.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" The Agent who wore Evie's food yelled, turning to confront the other Agent who had stepped in her way. Sighing and picking herself up off the floor she concentrated on herself, on making herself seen. Sweat built on her forehead with the effort and she was startled when a hand wrapped around her arm and her green eyes flew open.

"Evie are you alright?" Raven asked, concern flowing off of her in waves.

Curses and swearing erupted all around them as Evie became visible to all around her.

"Where the hell did you come from?" The Agent with food running down his face asked angrily, grabbing a hold of Evie's other arm. Jerking back in reflex she stumbled into the chest of someone else. Flinching away she was startled with the warmth that spread down her arm as the person behind her placed both of their hands on her shoulders and pulled her back towards them. Turning her head up she was surprised to see a frown pulling at red pouty lips and hard blue eyes.

"You got a problem?" Sean asked, voice low and strange. Raven stood close to her side eyeing the Agents around them and Evie wondered if they were going to fight, the tension in the air was so thick she was worried that they would.

Then someone laughed and they turned to see Agent Black coming towards them. His rotund form moving Agents left and right as he made his way towards the tense group in the middle of the mess hall.

"What a wonderful mutation you have, my dear. Come, let your friends take you back to their table and I will get you another dinner. Agent Smith, go and get cleaned up, I will see you in my office later. Off you go." His smile never left his face and Evie allowed Raven and Sean to steer her away from the mess she had made and sat down where they pushed her into her seat. They were quiet as Agent Black placed a tray of food in front of Evie and left them with a wave of his hand.

The CIA Agents slowly went back to their own conversations and the noise in the mess hall went back to its hum of indecipherable babble. The mutant table however was quiet as they all processed what had happened as they ate their dinner.

"So…is that your mutant power? Scare humans?" Sean asked, a humorous grin on his face. The others at the table laughed and Evie sat back in her seat and shook her head, a smile on her face.

"I-" Evie started to explain however was interrupted by Raven.

"-NO!" She cried out. "You have to wait until all of us have been recruited for the unveiling of our mutant talents. It makes it all the more exciting. Otherwise you'll have to explain it to everyone all over again when the others arrive." She explained, stabbing a piece of lettuce for emphasis.

"I think it's pretty obvious what her mutant powers are." Angel said, waving her fork in Evie's direction. Evie averted her eyes and sunk down in her seat again as everyone turned to look at her. Sean slung an arm around her shoulders and laughed.

"Yeah, she's the no.1 player of hide and seek in the world." He winked at Evie and then changed the subject to tomorrow's activities.

"I think we should do a circuit, you know weights, skipping, sit ups and push ups. What do you think?" Darwin asked, taking a drink of his cola.

"How many people use the exercise yard and the weights room?" Angel asked, her brown eyes scanning the Agent filled mess hall with a frown on her face.

Hank scratched his eye brow and shrugged. "There weren't that many people there today, right?" He asked, turning to the others.

"No, there were only a handful of them and I'm sure there are different times of day that it is used more than others. I'll ask Agent Lanley tonight when we got back to our rooms if he knows." Darwin stated.

"That's if he tells you…it might be classified." Evie said, a smile on her face as the boys snorted and tried and failed to hold in their laughter. Raven watched the four of them, a confused smile on her face. "Joke of the day." Evie explained to the girls with a shrug. "I'll tell you later tonight." She promised and went back to eating her dinner, feeling better now that the attention was off of her and everyone was back to laughing and having fun.

XxXxXxXxXx

As soon as they arrived in the rec room they were greeted by Charles, Erik and another man. He stood just to the side of the two friends, arms folded across his broad chest and his eyes flickered over all of the newly arrived people in the room. His skin was darker then Darwin and his eyes were almost black. Hair curled down over his ears and looked strangely boyish against the rest of his manly physic.

"Charles ,you back." Raven cried as she launched herself into her friend's arms. Then she smacked him on the arm as she stepped back. "So you're staying this time to introduce the newest recruit instead of dumping them here like you did with Sean?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

Charles laughed and looked to Erik with a shrug. "We had to hurry to catch up with Troy before he headed across country back home. We got him just in time." Turning to the large silent man next to him he clapped him on the shoulder. "Time for the introductions I think." He said cheerfully and manoeuvred everyone to the couches to be more comfortable.

"Troy, this is Raven, one of my dearest friends and next to her are Angel and Hank. These three are Sean, Evie and Darwin. Everyone, this is Troy. I'm sure you'll all help him to get to know the area while we prepare to get the last of our group."

"And how long will it take to get the last one?" Raven asked, sitting back in her chair. Erik answered the question with a frown on his face.

"This one will take a couple of days. There's a bit of red tape surrounding the last member we want so you'll have to be patient while Charles and I go and retrieve him. " Erik stood up and moved about the room restlessly as they others peppered Charles with questions.

They then invited Troy to go with them to the exercise yard tomorrow to do a circuit which he agreed to and then Raven and Hank took him down the corridor when he said he was tired to show him his room. Charles and Erik left the room as well, however they went back to the CIA main building to have a few words with Agent Black about their next recruit.

That left Angel, Darwin, Evie and Sean to sit and talk with each other.

"The first time I realised I was different I panicked." Angel said while she traced the tattoos along her arms and shrugged. "I figured that everyone panics when their mutation manifests itself but I think the worst part is how people react to you." She looked over at Evie and shrugged again. "Some of us can hide better than others, but we're still hiding aren't we?"

Evie traced a pattern into the couch's arm and looked out the rec room window and at the statue in the middle of the garden. "But if we have to hide who we are amongst even other mutants, then when can we just be ourselves?" She asked softly, looking at each of the others sadly. "Raven wants us to wait to share what our mutations are and I understand that, but for the first time in my life I feel normal."

Sean laughed gently and nudged her shoulder. "I know what you mean. Plus, just to look at us all we look normal, we've hidden our mutations so well that I wonder if we've hidden them too well, you know?"

"What, like stunted them or something?" Darwin asked with a frown. "I know that I've never actively practised or showed off my mutation but I think with training we could learn not to hide what we can do."

"But should we do that?" Angel asked. "You saw those Agents' reaction to Evie today in the mess hall, they freaked out. If we forget where we are and who we are with then we don't know what they will do. What I do know is that people who are frightened do some terrible things."

"Yes…yes they do." Darwin muttered, looking down at his hands.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you but how about when we're together, mutants only, we be ourselves, relax a little. I don't think I can be serious and sombre for a very long time." Sean joked, smiling. The others laughed and nodded.

"I like that, mutants only time." Evie nodded and the others crashed their fists together to make a deal.

After some more talk about their lives before, Darwin was gleefully telling them all about some of the cab fares that he had had and they were all laughing hard, tears leaking from their eyes when Charles and Erik came back in to the room. They stopped talking and stared at the four mutants curled on the couches facing each other and wiping tears of laughter from their eyes.

"It is rather late." Charles exclaimed, looking at his pocket watch and rubbing his eyes. "Goodnight, everyone." Erik echoed his good night and the two left the room towards their own. Evie nodded her head at her companions and stood up.

"I think I'll head off as well. It's been an interesting day. See you all tomorrow."

After a round of good nights everyone else stood and headed off to their rooms, yawning as they went.

Evie yelped when she had closed her door and faced her cot to see Raven sitting in the dark grinning up at her.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered as she flicked on the switch and light flooded the room.

"You said you'd tell me what that joke was about at dinner. I've been waiting in here for ages, what were you all doing?" Raven asked, pushing her hair behind her shoulder and patting the mattress next to her. Evie flopped down tiredly and sat with her back against the wall with a sigh.

"We were talking about living as mutants, hiding from everyone else to stay safe. We said that once we share what our mutations are we're going to have mutant time where when it's just mutants we can just be ourselves and not worry about hiding anything. I'm excited to just tell everyone and have you all know who I am."

Raven looked down at her hands for a moment and let the words wash over her. "Evie, do you have a physical mutation?" She asked softly, watching her new friend closely. The girl sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't think so, but I don't think it's quite normal either, well I mean a straight forward mutation. I'll tell you more about it when the last recruit arrives. I think that I would wish for a physical mutation, that way at least people could tell I was different, at least they would notice me." She looked up at Raven and laughed. "If one of us does have a physical mutation then I am very excited to see how different they are. I would like to see them, Raven, not just their mutation." Evie patted her friends shoulder. "Besides, like me and the others were saying before, if you can't be yourself around us then you'll never be yourself, right?"

Raven laughed and nodded her head. "I hope so; I hope that we all accept each other. Well…" Raven stood and stretched her arms over her head. "It's late and I need my beauty sleep. I will see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Sleep tight." Evie countered.

"Don't let the mutants bite." Raven laughed and left the room, her smile fading as the door closed behind her. Would they really accept her as herself when even her longest and dearest friend couldn't? She wasn't sure, but she hoped they could. Because if they didn't, then who would?

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The next day they all said goodbye and good luck to Charles and Erik as they left to go and work out the last of the paperwork and difficulties in retrieving their last recruit. Then they made their way to the mess hall, forced Evie to sit down at a table with Raven and Angel while the boys went and got their breakfast.

"We don't need another food fight to start this morning." Sean joked, blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "These suits are a bit too stiff to take defeat well." And then they'd gone off while Evie was laughing and before she could protest.

"Oh let them fuss and enjoy it while it lasts." Angel said amused. "It will lose its novelty after a while and you'll be back to getting your own food soon."

Raven and Evie laughed and shook their heads. The boys were back with their trays and they say down, pulling an extra seat over for Troy. He nodded his head and started digging in to his food right away.

"So I thought we could make today a little more interesting with a bit of competition." Raven spoke around a forkful of fruit, covering her mouth with her hand. The others nodded their heads with interested looks.

"What do you have in mind?" Hank asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Well, since there are an odd number of us we can't do teams unless someone wants to pair up with Agent Lanley." Pausing to allow everyone to calm down after their laughter she continued. "We could do it by how many times we do something on the circuit. Since there will be different weight classes you need to take the one that best suits you, not the one that will give you the easiest time-"

"Hey! Why are you looking at me?" Sean asked, an affronted look on his face before he laughed and shook his head when he caught everyone else's disbelieving looks. "Alright alright, I won't cheat." He placated, shaking his head and resumed eating.

"-so what do you think?" Raven finished, looking around at the others to gauge their reactions.

"Sounds like fun." Darwin said and turned to Troy. "What do you think?" The large and silent man shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head slowly.

"Sounds like a good way to pass the time. When are we going to do this?" He asked, dark eyes staring intently at Raven before flickering around the table, watching everyone closely.

"After lunch is when we get most bored so I thought then would be a good time?" Raven suggested, she pushed her finished plate away from her and sat back in her chair.

"Sounds good, I wanted to find the laundry room this morning to wash some of my clothes." Evie said, smiling gently at the scoffing sounds coming next to her. Sean was holding his sides as he looked at her incredulously.

"You want to do your laundry?" He questioned, eyebrows raised high. "Just leave it outside your door, I'm sure it's someone's job here to do that for us."

Evie pointed her fork at him and frowned. "I don't know about you but I'd rather do my own laundry. I don't want some CIA Agent going through my unmentionables."

Sean choked on his food and went red in the face as he tried to dislodge the food caught in his throat. Laughing, Evie and Darwin slapped at his back to help him. Finally able to breathe again he turned a wicked grin on Evie.

"I'll let you touch my unmentionables." He said and she blushed as Raven and Angel squealed.

"That's disgusting Sean, I can't believe you just said that." Raven said with her nose wrinkled delicately. Angel stood and looked down her nose at the red head as he chuckled to himself at the reaction his words had engendered. "Come along Raven, Evie, let's got before we are sullied with any more of this talk."

Sean laughed uproariously as the girls walked away from the table. When he was finished laughing and wiping his eyes he turned to the others at his table to realise that they had all left him by himself. Frowning he looked at the dirty dishes and sighed. A little clean up was a small price to pay for the memory of the girls' horrified looks and the blush that had stained Evie's cheeks. Smiling to himself, Sean stood with the stacked trays and put them away in the cleaning area for the kitchen staff to deal with. Hands in his pockets he sauntered away, eyes bright with happiness.

XxXxXxXxX

The seven mutants stood out in the exercise field, their circuit set up and the recording sheets next to each station. The day was sunny and warm with a light breeze, better weather then the day before. There were a few agents who were running around the track or doing their own circuits in a different part of the field and they left the mutants alone with their minder, Agent Lanley.

"So we will do each of the circuits twice, five minutes each round. Record your count on the sheets and then the winner tonight will get to have a piece of everyone's desert." Raven said with a smile. The sun glinted in her hair and she turned her bright smile on Hank, his mind stuttered to a stop for a moment and so he didn't catch what she was saying to him so he just nodded his head and her smile brightened even more. Hank smiled back and then frowned once he realised he didn't know what she had said to him. Staring at the others as they started to move off to different stations he waited until everyone had one before going to the one left over.

"Agent Lanley, if you please?" Raven asked politely. The Agent nodded, looked down at his watch and counted down before the time started. Once he said go all of the mutants started to do the circuit which they were on. Raven had the skipping rope and she laughed as she crossed it over and spun around in a circle to make it more exciting as she counted how many she did. Troy had the medicine ball and was doing sit ups and interchanging it with accordion. Angel was doing push ups and interchanging that with dips. Darwin was using the weights while sitting on the bench watching the others while he counted how many reps he did. Sean had pulled the rowing machine out of the weights room and smiled as he stretched out his muscles with the machine, his eyes travelling over the form of Evie doing lunges across the field unconsciously.

It took them a little longer than an hour and a half to complete their circuit because Troy accidently broke the rowing machine and Hank had to fix it. They were all sweating and panting with wide smiles on their faces as Raven collected the recording papers. She waved them in everyone's face.

"Let's get cleaned up and meet back in the rec room for the results." She suggested. There were yells and cheers as they headed off for the showers.

Evie laughed as Raven slung her arm around her and Angel's shoulders and they moved awkwardly through the corridors of the CIA off site compound, laughing and joking about sore muscles.

"Do you know what the best work out is?" Angel asked with a sly smile directed at the other two girls.

"No." They both answered innocently, turning to look at the dark haired mutant beside them. She smirked and opened her mouth to tell them when they were pushed from behind by a group of smelly, sweaty mutant boys. Sean spun Evie around and dipped her with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"Dancing, of course." He stated, pulling Evie from the dip and bowing over her hand with a wink. Rolling her eyes Evie pulled her hand from his grip and wiped it on his sweat shirt.

"Yuk, go have a shower." She pushed him down the corridor, laughing he called back.

"Want to join me?" and was cuffed over the head by Darwin and Hank for his remark. Sean turned back to the girls, his eyes caught Evie's and she blushed and looked away.

"Sorry about that." Hank called sheepishly as they waved and went around the corner and out of site. Raven laughed and slung her arms back around the girls, shaking her head.

"That boy lives for jokes and laughs." She said looking over at Evie who stood just as tall as she did, her dark blonde hair had come loose of her plait and strands hung down over her sweaty face, her cheeks pink.

"He lives for innuendo more like." Angel muttered, "Men, they're all the same." She huffed, shoved Ravens arm from her shoulders and stalked down the corridor ahead of the other two girls.

Evie and Raven watched her go with confused looks before shrugging. "I think he's funny." Evie said quietly, her green eyes avoiding Raven's. Raven pushed her blonde hair from her eyes and laughed triumphantly.

"You like him." She accused, pointing at her friend.

"Yes." Evie said seriously looking Raven in the eyes; they stood in the middle of the corridor leading to the rec room and towards their rooms and showers. "Just as I like you and all the others," she grinned at Raven's eye roll and pulled her friend down the corridor. "Now come on, I want you to hurry up and tell the others I won so I can have half of everyone's desert tonight."

Grinning at each other they parted ways at their rooms and showered, got ready and quickly made their way to the rec room. All of the boys were lounging on the couches, Angel still wasn't back so the two girls separated and took seats across from each other in the only places still available. It was another half an hour before Angel made her appearance. She took the teasing well and shrugged.

"Perfection like this takes time." She said gesturing to herself.

"You just pointed to all of you." Hank commented.

"Naturally." She smirked. The others laughed and then quietened as Raven pulled out the record sheets and started to clear her throat.

"How do we know you won't rig it so that you win?" Evie asked, green eyes alight with mischief.

"Well I know if you do it you will rig it, so you'll just have to trust me." Raven countered. Evie smacked Sean's shoulder as he snorted into his hand to hide his humour.

"So the winner of the skipping rope is…huh, Evie."

"Huh! You might as well just hand over your desert now." She crowed.

"Skipping is for girls." Sean pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Now don't get carried away, the winner of the sit ups and accordions is Troy, oh and the push ups and dips as well. The winner of the weights is Hank." Frowning, Raven looked over at everyone before continuing. "The winner of the rowing is Sean, though I don't think that should count because I don't think Hank fixed it properly after Troy broke it."

"Now don't hate the row master." Sean joked. "I'll pay you later." He whispered conspiratorially to Troy with a wink. The large dark man blinked his eyes in confusion while Darwin and Evie punched his arms to stop clowning around. "Hey, these are my rowing arms, I need these to carry the desert you will be awarding me when I am named winner." He stated, flexing his arms. Everyone rolled their eyes and Raven cleared her throat.

"Can I continue now?" Raven didn't wait for an answer as she continued, "The winner of the lunges is Darwin. Therefore the overall winner is Troy, congratulations." She said smiling over at their newest member. He nodded his head and accepted everyone's backslaps and joking threats of next times. They all stood up together and headed for the mess hall, all quite hungry after the exertions of the day.

XxXxXxXxXxX

It was another two days of exercise, games, jokes and eating in the mess hall before Charles, Erik and their last recruit arrived. They were just getting back from their game of how far can you throw the medicine ball before you dropped it or got injured in the exercise yard when the trio entered.

"Finally." Raven said as she flung herself at Charles and shook hands with Erik to greet them back. She then turned to the last member of their group and smiled.

"I'm Raven, and you are?"

"Alex Summers." The blonde said with a stiff handshake, he eyed the others over and gave them a nod. "Nice to meet you all."

"Well, Erik and I need to go and speak to Moira about a few things, so we'll leave you all to get to know each other. Have fun!" Charles said with a smile before he and Eric then left through the door, leaving eight mutants staring at each other.

"We'll I'm off to have a shower. I wonder if Lanley will let us have dinner in the rec room tonight so we can celebrate?" Evie asked, turning to Raven. The blonde shrugged and smiled.

"I'm sure he'd be happy not to have to sit by himself in the mess hall tonight. " She said and then left the room for a moment to speak with their Agent babysitter.

Waving tiredly at the new boy, Evie left the room to have her shower, Angel following behind her.

Choosing to wear the clothes Erik and Charles had found her in she went back to the rec room to see that Darwin, Troy and the new boy Alex were standing around the pin ball machine and laughing with each other. Walking over she watched the game for a bit while they waited for the others to arrive.

Hank and Sean came through the door leading to the CIA main building with bags of food and drinks in their hands and smiles on their faces.

"Dinners ready." They announced. Evie hurried over to help them to place the food on the table between the couches and to pull another chair over from the far corner so that they would all have some place to sit.

Once dinner was set out on the table the other boys came over and sat down and it was another few minutes before the other girls arrived together. Looking around at the group gathered Evie grinned as she realised everyone was wearing their own clothes. Alex's arrival was a special occasion.

They all ate quickly, nudging each other out of the way so they could get what they wanted. The dessert was cut in half and reluctantly relinquished to Troy who accepted it quietly. Once they were all finished eating there was a moment of quiet as they looked at each other.

"Well, I think it's time for the unveiling of our mutant abilities." Raven announced happily, looking at the others. "And since we're the mutant division of the CIA we should have our own secret agent names." Sitting back in her seat she thought for a moment before jumping in her seat slightly and punching her arm in the air triumphantly. "I'll be Mystique." She said, eyes bright.

"Damn." Sean snapped his fingers and shook his head. "I wanted to be called Mystique."

Evie patted his arm consolingly. "Sean, Mystique means mysterious. There is nothing about you that's mysterious." Sean pouted and stared into her eyes.

"I could be mysterious." Laughing and pushing away the red head she shook her head and then did a double take as she looked at where Raven should be and in her place was Sean. Blinking she turned to the boy next to her and then back again.

"What-how?" Evie gasped.

"I'm way more mysterious then you." The look-a-like said with Sean's voice and inflections and smile. Then before their eyes blue spikes appeared and he changed back into Raven. Clapping their hands in delight at the amazing ability that had been shown to them Evie sat forward.

"So your mutant ability is to change your appearance to that of everyone else? That's amazing." She said, eyes wide with fascination.

"Is it only appearance or is it finger prints, everything that is different?" Darwin asked, eyes wide at the possibilities.

"Everything, I think." Raven shrugged, her smile a little tight.

"Is that all of your mutation?" Evie asked, catching the change in her smile. Raven shifted nervously and shook her head. The blue spikes returned and instead of someone else reflected back at them in Raven's place sat a blue skinned, red haired creature with golden eyes. Moving out of her seat Evie approached Raven.

"Can I touch you?" She asked softly. Raven nodded and with a slightly shaking finger Evie traced a finger over Raven's cheek, feeling the texture of her skin and her hair. "You're amazing, absolutely beautiful. I have never seen anything like this, Raven." The others came forward and touched and prodded Raven before she laughed and pushed them off, allowing herself to be Raven the mutant for mutant time and sat waiting for the others to reveal their secret agent names and their mutant powers.

"I'm next. I'll just keep my name, it's actually a nick name already, and my real name is Armando. So I'm happy to stay as Darwin."

"So what's your mutation?" Raven asked. Darwin stood up and grinned before heading over to the fish tank. He then put his head in the water and grinned at the 'ew's' that he heard from the girls. He felt the gills grow and start to filter the air from the water to allow him to breathe. He then pulled his head out and shook his head to help the gills fade faster.

"I adapt to survive, so I figured Darwin was a pretty apt name for myself." He stated.

"So you can survive in any situation? You body just changes to help you?" Angel asked, her dark eyes pondering the interesting mutations that had been shown to them by their fellow team mates.

"How interesting that two of the mutations change the body to help the mutants to survive in whatever conditions they may be in. Mystique can hide among humans and Darwin can live in any conditions." Hank scratched at his eye brow as he pondered the interesting nature of the mutations.

"Alright, well I think I'll do the same as Darwin here, my stage name was Angel and well…" she then stripped off her leather jacket and let it fall back to the couch. Her tattoos then started to peel from her shoulders and solidify into actual dragonfly wings. She then lifted into the air and hovered in front of everyone. She laughed as everyone stared at her and turned to the window. "I can do this as well." She then spat and the ball of venom hit the window and brunt a hole through the glass plating.

"Wow." Alex said, looking at the others around him with awe. "It's crazy that were not alone, that we're here right now sharing our mutations with each other." They all laughed and smiled at each other. Years of tension and hiding slowly falling away from them in the face of love, support and acceptance from others like them.

"Hank?" Raven turned to the boy next to her and he played with his glasses nervously, swallowing hard before reaching down and taking off his shoes and socks. Alex choked on a laugh and sniggered instead.

"So should we call you big foot?" Alex joked, looking at the others to laugh with him. Raven glared and Evie knelt down on the ground to get a better look at Hanks feet. "You want to touch those too?"

Evie looked up at the blonde and frowned. "What did you say just moments ago, Alex? About sharing our mutations with each other? Don't you think we should accept all mutations, or just the ones that we think are cool? I think Hank's mutation is cool." Evie pointed out, Alex grunted and crossed his arms over his chest again, turning his head away. Turning back to Hank's feet Evie looked up at him. "Can you do a hand shake with your feet, Hank?" She asked curiously. Raven came down with her and watched as Hank lifted his feet and shook Evie's hand. They all laughed in delight and Raven then grabbed his other foot to give a foot-to-hand shake as well.

"Amazing," Darwin said, "What else can you do?" Hank pulled his feet from the girl's hands and then got to his feet. Looking up at the ceiling he jumped up with a flip and hung from the ceiling light fixture. He then flipped back down and sat back in his seat, but not before handing the girls a handkerchief, each to wipe their hands with.

"What should we call you then, big..."Alex trailed off again as Raven turned to him, a smile on her face.

"Well you know what they say about guys with big feet, and yours look kind of small." She pointed out. The others crowed with laughter and Alex after a while joined in, shaking his head and turning to Hank.

"Sorry man, I didn't mean to say that." Alex apologised. Hank waved him away, a smile lighting his eyes.

"What about you, Troy?" Darwin asked, turning to the silent member of their group. The tall, strongly built dark haired and skinned man nodded, walked over to the chair that had Angel, Darwin and Evie sitting on it, went behind it, bent down and with a lurching sensation the chair under the three of them lifted into the air. Yelping in surprise the three mutants turned to look behind them to see that Troy was holding the chair and smiling brightly at them.

"Super strength. You can call me Tank." Placing the couch back into the ground, Tank retook his seat and turned to the red head just as everyone else had.

"Right, I think I'll be Banshee." He announced with a decisive nod.

"Isn't that a female spirit that tells you when someone's about to die?" Hank asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll maybe not the girl part, but the rest seems to apply." He stood up from his chair, walked until he stood dead centre of the large red room window, turned to look at the others and paused. "You may want to cover your ears." He recommended with a smirk as they all quickly blocked their ears. Taking a deep breath he stared hard at the window and then screamed. The glass shattered and he jumped back, surprised by the explosion of glass and the amount of damage caused. Laughing he sat back down and shrugged. "Super sonic sound waves." He clarified.

"Come on Evie, your turn." Raven goaded with a large grin on her blue face. Evie stood and nodded her head, rolled her shoulders and then disappeared. The others started and turned their heads every which way trying to see her. She reappeared over by the pin ball machine and waved before disappearing again and reappearing back in her seat.

"I go invisible, though humans don't seem to be able to notice me at all. Charles explained it that my mutation makes me hard to look at; people's eyes just slide right off me naturally. I can't turn it off, that's why I have to dodge the Agents. What I can figure out is that once a mutant sees me their eyes learn how to see me all the time. Another score for the mutant gene, it's nice to be noticed." She said quietly. "I can also do some sort of force field thing. I haven't had much practice in it and it only happens when I've been in danger, some sort of reflex of my mutant powers." Shaking out her fingers she caused a blue flash from her fingers only as big as a quarter. "So my Secret Agent name will be Ghost." She grinned, sitting back in her chair and everyone turned to their last and newest member in anticipation.

"Alex, it's your turn." Raven called out, clapping her hands and everyone watched as the blonde boy frowned and shook his head.

"I can't, it's not safe. I can't do it in here." He said folding his arms across his chest protectively.

"Well, can you do it out there?" Darwin asked, pointing to the garden that now had a convenient entrance, courtesy of Banshee.

"I don't think I should, I'm telling you it's dangerous."

"Alex, Alex, Alex," Raven started up the chant and everyone joined in, clapping their hands and smiling hopefully at him. The blonde rolled his eyes and stood.

"Fine, but if you get hurt it's your own fault." Alex stepped carefully through the broken window and took up a stance just a little away and to the right of the window to protect the other mutants. They followed and poked their heads out of the window to watch. "Get back!" he ordered, pointing back to the room. They moved back and then two seconds later had their heads sticking out the window to see. "I said get back." When they didn't move he shook his head and muttered a "whatever" under his breath.

Spreading his hands to the side he twisted his body and hoops of red light appeared around his body which he pushed off and outwards from himself. They lit up the sky and sliced cleanly through the statue, singeing the ground around it and carving out deep grooves in the manicured lawns. There was clapping and cheering from inside the room and he climbed back in to the rec room amongst black slaps and smiles.

"Man, that's some havoc you just caused." Sean whistled appreciatively, poking his head back out of the window for another look.

Alex grinned and shrugged. "Cool, I'm Havoc then." He announced. The other mutants laughed and cheered and ended up finding a radio to celebrate properly their revealing of their mutant powers with dancing, music and more food.

"We should think of names for Charles and Erik." Raven called out as she danced on the chair, swinging Angel's arms as the girl hovered with her mutation keeping her aloft.

"Oh, I already thought of that." Sean called out as he hit Darwin with a stick to watch in fascination as his mutation scaled his skin to keep him safe. "Professor X for the Professor and Magneto for the magnet man."

Raven laughed in delight and pulled Evie up onto the couch with her. "I like it." She approved.

They were celebrating well into the night when a shrill, angry voice broke through their merriment.

"What are you doing?" Moira MacTaggert yelled, arms on her hips. Charles and Erik stood behind her gobsmacked at the devastation of the rec room and the destroyed gardens.

Raven jumped down from the couch and the others turned from what they were doing to stare at the irate woman. Moira shook her head, muttered something and then stalked off. Raven watched her go, unconscious of the fact that she had changed back to her human form as soon as Moira had appeared.

"We were celebrating; we gave each other Secret Agent names. We decided that you, Charles, should be Professor X and that Erik should be Magneto."

Erik looked startled, his blue eyes taking in the mutants standing behind Raven and shook his head. "Remarkable." He said softly and then turned and followed Moira from the devastation. Charles hesitated and turned back to the Mutants, his gaze travelling over them before resting on Raven. He shook his head, deeply upset with their conduct.

"I expected more of you." He said before leaving.

Ravens shoulders slumped and she turned quickly and left the room, trying and failing to hide her tears.

"Huh, he's a real party pooper." Sean remarked as he picked the couch up, turning it back to how it should be.

"Every party needs one." Evie replied.

XxXxXxXxX

TBC

AN/ Thanks for the correction of Erik Lensherr and for the reviews. I'm on Uni Holidays now so the updates will be pretty quick (I'm hoping) I'm pretty motivated to get this story out of my head and to answer a few of the questions that I had from the movie. Any more corrections you might want to add then just let me know. This is slightly AU so it won't follow completely with the movie. I thought it was funny that Agent Black is in fact 'guy in the black suit.' Hah!

An accordion is when you lay on the ground, hold the medicine ball on your stomach, curl your legs in to your body and then stretch out your body (holding the medicine ball in your hands as you do this)


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A bad penny always turns up.

Raven wouldn't talk to anyone and she wouldn't leave her room. Everyone had tried to talk to her, the most successful had been Hank and Evie, but even then she hadn't opened the door. Maintenance men had come to the rec room to clean up their mess and to install a new window. They weren't allowed to leave the rec room until they were told otherwise and their food would be brought to them by Agent Lanley. They had all apologised profusely to their babysitter for his new job as their waiter.

Watching the men struggle with the large pane of glass, the four seated mutants commented on the thickness of the glass and how strong Sean's mutant powers must be to be able to shatter that.

"We should have called you opera singer." Evie joked as she dodged Sean's half hearted punch. The others laughed before quieting at the dirty looks the workers were giving them.

"Now I see why Angel and Tank left the room." Darwin muttered, running a hand over his short cropped hair.

"Want to give them all names?" Sean asked, blue eyes following the progress of a strict looking woman with short black hair and a pinched look to her features.

"I don't know if we should." Alex stated nervously. "They've already locked us up in here, and I was told this wasn't going to be like prison."

Evie shrugged and pointed to one of the workers that squatted on the ground, screw driver in his mouth and a black smudge of something across his nose. "I'll call that one Agent Smudge. Lame I know, but you have to start somewhere. Alex, I'm sure you gave your prison guards nicknames?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"We'll yeah, but we didn't do it where they could hear us." Alex grumbled, ignoring the grins directed his way. He then pointed to one of the Agents over by the door with a clipboard in hand. "Let's call that one Agent Stiff."

"That one's Agent Pinchy." Sean pointed to the woman he had been watching earlier. The others laughed.

Darwin shook his head. "It's a good thing we gave ourselves good names, we can use the bad ones on everyone else." He said with a sigh.

"Do you think that's what happened with the real Agents? The ones up the top gave themselves the good names and when they had to give everyone else their Secret names they couldn't really think of any and so gave them lame ones?" Evie asked. Sean snickered and nodded his head sagely.

"Of course, the ones at the top would be something like Special Agent Mr. E. or Agent S. Pie."

"You're so funny." Evie deadpanned.

"I always thought so, thank you for noticing." Sean winked.

"So I'm naming this one with the mop bucket Agent Pirate." Alex stated.

"Why?" Darwin scratched his head, trying to see how the Agent Alex had pointed to looked anything like a pirate.

"Because that's what pirates do, swab the deck."

Evie laughed and threw a pillow at Alex's head. "That was such a bad joke."

"Oh, come on, I thought it was pretty good. Let's see you come up with a better Pirate joke."

"Easily, where does a pirate go for a drink?" She asked, turning to Sean. He pretended to ponder for a long time before turning to the others with a wide grin.

"A barrrr." He yelled with a very poor imitation of a pirates drawl. The others all groaned at the joke and turned their attention back to the workers.

"How much do you think the damage even cost?" Darwin wondered aloud. "I didn't even think of the consequences of us having fun last night."

"Please, these people can afford it, it's the government. They say that a pen costs five dollars in their expenditure accounts. It only costs 50 cents for one and then they spend the rest on the military." Alex protested, waving away Darwin's concerns.

"When do you think Charles and Erik will talk to us about what's going to happen now?" Evie asked, turning to Sean next to her. He shrugged, slouching in his seat and propping his legs onto the table.

"Hopefully soon, I'm getting bored just sitting here. I had a job before they came and found me." Darwin stated, flexing his hands to release some tension. "What about you guys and girl, what did you do before they came and got you?"

"I was actually working at the aquarium, feeding the fish, cleaning tanks that sort of things. I liked it there and I usually walked around after my shift to check out the…fish." Sean trailed off, a wary eye on Evie to see if she had caught his slip. She smiled brightly at him and so he sighed with relief and slung an arm over the back of the couch, hand just brushing her shoulder and he grinned when she didn't say or do anything about it.

"What is your favourite fish?" Darwin asked, gesturing over to where the fish tank stood against the far wall, miraculously unharmed from the night before activities.

"I like any kind really, sharks are my favourite. Whales are pretty cool as well, though they're not fish." Sean frowned at himself, he sounded like a fish geek. Shrugging his shoulders he lolled his head to the side and looked at the girl sitting next to him. Her feet were curled under her and the sleeves of her sweatshirt pulled down to cover her hands.

"I like those puffer fish, I think them being round is pretty cool." Evie said, turning in her seat to face Sean. "Did they have those at the aquarium?"

He nodded, "Yeah, you ever been to one?" Evie shook her head no. "Huh, I'll have to take you there once this all gets sorted out." He waved at the room in general where the workers were still moving about them and ignoring the four mutants seated on the couches.

"You are not going to invite us too?" Alex asked with a fake pout, batting his eyes at the red head. Sean rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"You're just not my type Alex." The boys laughed heartily and Evie frowned, realising she hadn't really understood the direction the conversation had gone in. Sighing, she rested her head back against the couch's black leather and closed her eyes.

"I worked as a recorder in the courts." Evie said softly. "It was really the only place where it was ok for me to be invisible. I concentrated on being seen when I arrived and when it was finished, but other than that everyone forgets you're there anyway. Sometimes, though, the bad guys would get upset about the rulings, or what had been recorded. I thought it was a good, safe job." She swallowed hard, trying to keep the memories and feelings away. "Sometimes the bad people would wait for you outside the court, follow you for a bit." She shrugged, fingers playing with the sleeves of her sweatshirt. "Good thing I'm a mutant." She joked weakly.

"I was scared but relieved when Charles and Erik came to find me. I've never been so happy in my life, I think." Breathing deeply Evie laughed and opened her eyes to look at the three boys sitting with her. "I am happy." She affirmed to herself.

"Could you not have left, found another job if you weren't happy?" Darwin asked, frowning.

Evie shook her head and looked away from them. "Where would I have gone? No one ever noticed me; I would try talking to people and be ignored. I was…am still invisible to people. I had nowhere else to go. Shrugging, she smiled gently at them, pushing the painful memories back. "Now I have a place, I have friends; I have people who see me. I feel like being a mutant was the worst and best thing to ever happen to me." Groaning, she buried her head in her hands and smiled ruefully. "Now I'm the party pooper." She complained and the others chuckled and shook their heads.

"We'll yours isn't the only sad story." Alex said, rubbing his hands and avoiding their eye contact. "I was in jail, as you know. I hurt people, not on purpose, but with my mutation. I don't know how to control it and so they locked me up in prison for two years, one of those in solitary. I didn't even understand how I had hurt people until Charles and Erik came and found me."

"Alright, you have to move now." Startled all four jumped in their seats to face the pinched faced Agent they had named Agent Pinchy. She was pointing a stubbed finger at them indicating that she was speaking to them. Standing up they moved towards their own rooms, waving goodbye.

Just as Evie was about to step into her room Sean caught her hand in his and pulled her back to face him.

"I'm glad Charles and Erik found you too." He then let her hand drop and he turned to his own room, opening the door and slipping inside. A strange new feeling startled to bubble within her chest as she stared down at the hand Sean had been holding a moment before. Smiling to herself, she entered her own room knowing that she could trust these mutants with anything. These people were her friends. Looking down at her hand which still felt warm from that briefest of touches, maybe he was even more? Hope was not something Evie was used to feeling, but it was something she thought she could get used to.

XxXxXxXxX

They were summoned via Charles' mutant power to congregate in the newly restored rec room. Charles, Erik and Moira stood before them, hard looks on their faces. Raven sat down stiffly next to Evie and Hank. Angel sat on one arm of the couch and Sean took the other. Leaving Alex, Darwin and Troy to stand behind the couch, all facing the three older people in the room.

"You are to be confined to these rooms until we come back from our mission in Russia. Your conduct yesterday has barred you from this mission. We expect you to use this time to think about why you are here and if you really want to be a part of this team. This is not a holiday, this is not a party. We have chosen you to be part of the CIA mutant division to take down other dangerous mutants like Sebastian Shaw." Charles explained, his usually happy face was pulled into a deep frown.

"I know that you haven't had anyone to lead you as Erik and I have been busy. That will change when we come back. Until then, try not to destroy the place."

The three then took their leave of the room and left the eight young mutants to sit quietly for a while to think about what they had said.

"We'll, that was a fine speech." Sean muttered, pushing Evie's shoulder and sliding down into the seat next to her, squishing the other mutants already on the couch. He propped his feet onto the table and crossed his arms. "What did they think we were going to do while they gallivanted around the country side?"

Alex and Darwin laughed as they made their way over to the couch opposite, Angel following them. Troy opted to sit in the small chair facing the rec room window where a new statue stood in place of the one they had destroyed the night before.

"I think they were embarrassed more than angry." Evie contemplated, wiggling to get more comfortable in her seat between Raven and Sean. Turning to the girl next to her she poked her in the ribs. "Mutant time." She whispered. Raven glanced at her and sighed, allowing her true form to show. Alex then threw a cushion at Hank who glared but did not take his shoes and socks off.

"He didn't even look at me." Raven said sadly, her golden eyes dulled. "He's never been that angry with me before."

"I think it was more shock. Have you ever acted like that around him before, Raven? Has he seen you dance and laugh and have fun without him?" Darwin asked, his brown eyes curious.

Raven shrugged, her expression turning thoughtful as she looked back over her life with Charles. Laughing, the blue mutant explained. "No, it's always been Charles who was the partier, he made sure I drank my cola and only spoke to him."

"You're not sad anymore?" Hank asked, turning to face her. Raven shook her red hair and sighed happily.

"No, I actually think he was disappointed he couldn't join in." Everyone laughed at that, trying to imagine the serious looking Charles and Erik partying alongside them. It was a hard image to conjure for most of them.

"Well, since we'll be stuck here for a few days, what should we do?" Angel asked while inspecting her nails.

"We'll have to come up with quiet games or 20 questions or something." Alex suggested.

"We could have Evie go invisible and every try to find her." Troy said, his dark eyes trained on Evie intently. She looked over at him confused and shook her head.

"That doesn't sound very fun." She turned away from his intense stare to look at Alex, Darwin and Angel who sat across from her. "Do we have any cards?"

There was groaning from next to her and Evie turned to look at Sean in amusement. "I hate card games." He complained.

Raven clapped her hands together. "Good, because I love them." She countered, getting up from the couch quickly. There was a yelp behind her and turning quickly she laughed at the jumble of limbs on the couch. Hank and Evie had slid sideways when she had gotten up; Hank was lying sideways with Evie somehow sandwiched between him and the couch back. Sean had followed her slide and now lay in her lap. Holding in her laughter long enough to help her friends she pushed Sean up and away from Evie before pulling Hank up off the couch. Evie was then able to roll off the couch and get her bearings.

"Warn us next time you decided to leap off the couch." Evie mock grumbled, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Or not." Sean smirked as he sat back down and pulled Evie up and onto the couch next to him. Raven rolled her eyes and turned to the shelves and cupboards that lined the wall of their rec room.

"What card games do you all know?" Alex asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Poker, go fish, snap, old maid, cheat, golf." Darwin counted off on his fingers as he named each game.

"Golf?" Angel asked, turning to the boy next to her. "How is that a card game?"

Raven slapped two packs of cards onto the table. "You can teach us later." She said as she pulled the two decks out and shuffled them. "Should we play snap first, to get us all in the mood for cards?"

Raven dealt out the cards after she had shuffled them, making sure that there were eight piles. Everyone moved closer to the table and Raven realised she couldn't fit back in to her seat so she opted to sit across from Troy so that there was room enough to play. The game started in silence until a slapping sound came.

"Snap." Evie cried loudly, her hand over Sean's and under Angel's. Sean started to pull the cards towards him but was stopped by Evie who tried to move them towards herself.

"What are you doing? I slapped them first," Sean stated.

"You didn't say 'snap' so, therefore, you don't count." Evie replied.

"No one ever said that, you can't just make up rules so that you can win."

"I'm not making up rules. The game is called snap; you have to say 'snap' to win the cards."

"I agree with Evie." Angel and Raven said simultaneously, smiling at the red head's frown.

"You would." He muttered. After the game commenced again, with Evie taking the cards, he lent towards her and whispered. "Cheater."

"Sore loser." She whispered back and Sean smirked, sliding his eyes sideways to capture the upwards tilt of Evie's lips.

"Snap!" Angel crowed, pulling the large pile of cards towards her, a triumphant smile gracing her heart shaped face. Darwin and Raven muttered about her hand being too close to the cards, but they continued on with the game.

There were a few more snaps called before Alex emerged the winner of that game. It was decided after that that they would play black jack. Angel said she would be the dealer.

Evie and Darwin were so utterly hopeless with the game and everyone was surprised to see that it was Hank who won most of the rounds. He explained about probability and the amount of cards and everyone tuned out after a few seconds as the words went right over their heads. Raven smiled brightly at him though and he sat there for another five minutes explaining things until he realised no one was listening.

They were just getting ready for their next game when there was a tapping on the glass window of the rec room. Turning as one, they saw two Agents staring at them, big silly grins on their faces.

"Here's trouble." Sean muttered under his breath as the Agents nudged each other, trying to egg the other on.

"Hey, I didn't know the circus was in town." One called out. "Come on, show us your feet. Give us a bit of-"and then he flapped his arms looking at Angel. Hank got up from the couch, his eyes hard as he stared at the Agents. The two agents were laughing and flexing their arms. "Where's that invisible girl and the blue one. If we paid you, would you give us a show?" They wagged their eyebrows and laughed harder as Hank closed the curtain for the window. Turning back around he sat quietly in his seat.

"They're just guys being stupid." Raven waved it off, trying and failing to hide how much those words had hurt.

Angel scoffed. "I can handle guys being stupid, did you see how they were looking at us? Nah-uh, I'd rather have a guy stare at me with my clothes off then have them stare at me the way those two were." She stood up angry and Evie laughed. "What are you laughing at? You don't have people looking at you like your some kind of freak. Oh yeah, that's right, people don't look at you period. So you have no right to laugh at me or what I think."

Evie rolled her eyes. "You'd rather have guys stare at you naked? You've got issues, and if you think you're the only one who was hurt by those words then think again. We're all mutants, so when they say something like that to one of us, we know they're thinking it about the rest of us as well. You don't need to listen to that sort of crap. They are stupid, so leave it at that."

"Leave it? Leave it? You have no idea, do you? You don't know what it's like to be stared at; you spend your whole time here going about unnoticed by everyone because of your mutation. You think you know how we all feel, what will make it better when you can't even help yourself. I don't even think you want people to see you or you would have tried harder to control your mutation. You're a joke. I mean, look at you, who would want to stare at you anyway?" Angel stopped and stared at the blonde as she blinked up at her. The room seemed awfully quiet. Breathing heavily Angel watched as the words sunk in to Evie. Her breath hitched in her chest and her eyes watered as she looked up at the other mutant.

"I would rather people see me for me, then as an object, or a joke, or a freak. I thought that was what it was when I came here, among you. Hah, it's funny how much it hurts to have you notice me and then decide that I'm not worth it." Nodding her head and biting her lip she stood slowly, slipping out of the hands that tried to grab for her. "Thank you for clearing that up, Angel." And then she made a hasty exit from the room, her tears glittering in the light.

"Oh please, just because she went all damsel in distress you're looking at me like I'm the monster." Pointing at the now curtained window Angel glared at them. "Those people will never accept us and she doesn't get it. She's been protected by all of you from the moment she got here. They'll start with names, then with bulling and then it will become beating and killing. We're not real to them; they call us mutants, mutations. That's not a nice word at all, why do we even call ourselves that?" Shaking her head she threw her hands up in frustration and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

The others sat in stunned silence for a little while longer, just looking at each other and trying to process exactly what had happened. Sean whistled low, eyebrows raised high.

"I was hoping for some mud and clothes flying off, but I suppose for my first cat fight it wasn't too bad." Sean joked, trying to ease the tension. He recoiled as Tank exploded from his chair and pointed a finger right in his face.

"This is not some joke to laugh it. It's not funny so be serious for just one second of your life." Then the dark, usually silent man stalked from the room as well.

"I think that's the most he's spoken since he got here." Sean pointed out, running a shaking hand through his messy red hair. Raven threw a cushion at him. "What? It's true, and I'm sorry if I don't want to get all angry and have a freak out like everyone else has. I think enough people have fled this room today." Sighing, he looked around at the others still sitting quietly. "Do you think we should keep the curtains closed all day?"

Darwin nodded thoughtfully. "It would seem like the best idea, and I think someone should go and check on the others, make sure they're ok."

Alex waved a hand. "Maybe you should let them cool down for a bit, and what did Angel mean by people staring at her with her clothes off?"

Raven laughed, shaking her head and relaxing back into her seat, the tension leaving her body. "She used to work in a gentlemen's club." She shrugged her shoulders. "I think she was a dancer or something." The boys stared at her with mouths open and wide eyes.

"She's a stripper." Alex blurted out and then blushed as Raven laughed openly at him. The others relaxed their bodies and joined in the laughter with her. "So Darwin, you gonna teach us how to play this golf game?"

Darwin clapped his hands "Raven, is there more cards in the cupboard?"

Raven stood and went rummaging through the cupboards in search of more cards, Hank moving to help her. Sean watched them for a moment before sliding his eyes away and towards the door that led to their rooms. Worrying his bottom lip with his teeth he wondered if Evie was alright. He'd check on her after this game. That should be enough time to cool down he thought. Starting as the others called his name loudly he turned back to Darwin who was explaining the rules of the game.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Evie sat on her bed and stared at her door, wiping furiously at the tears that refused to stop falling. She didn't even understand why she was so upset with Angel's words, or why they had hurt so much. It took her longer than she thought to get her breathing under control and for the tears to stop but she felt better once they had. She was startled by the knock on her door. Getting off the bed she slowly made her way to the door, trying to wipe the evidence of her crying from her face. Opening the door a little she poked her head out to see who it was. She was surprised to see Sean standing there, hands deep in his pockets and looking down at her through his messy red hair.

"You alright?" He asked gruffly, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. She leant against the door frame and nodded, smiling softly up at him.

"Yeah, you know us girls, we're an emotional sort." She explained, embarrassed that he was seeing her with splotchy skin and shiny eyes.

He smiled at her and grunted. "Good, see you at dinner then?" Evie laughed and wiped her suddenly teary eyes. With a sniff she nodded again.

"Yeah, dinner." She confirmed and then slowly closed the door. She listened to him shuffling away and smiled brighter. At least everyone didn't feel the same way that Angel did and Evie held on to that thought.

XxXxXxXxX

Dinner was a subdued affair, with the seating arranged so that everyone would feel comfortable about being there. Agent Lanley brought the food in, they thanked him and then he left just as quickly. The food was nice and Evie laughed quietly when Sean slid a quarter of his desert onto her plate. She shook her head at his antics but ate both her own and the portion that Sean had given her with relish.

After dinner Angel and Tank left the room quickly and Raven and Evie helped in stacking the dishes and leaving the trays outside their door. Alex and Darwin migrated over to the pin ball machine leaving Hank and Sean to the couches. Once Evie and Raven had rejoined the boys on the couch, talk returned to their 'imprisonment.'

"We have a few more days of time out. I'm going to need something to do other then pinball and cards." Sean stated, leaning back in his chair in his usual position.

"I think they have books somewhere." Hank pointed out, ignoring the groan from Sean and turned to Raven and Evie. "They have all sorts of books. I personally enjoy the science ones myself but I am partial to a good murder mystery." He confessed.

"Have you heard about those murder mystery parties, Hank?" Darwin asked as he watched Alex try to beat his own high score.

"No, what are those?"

"Oh, I've heard of them." Raven piped up, smiling brightly as she remembered something Charles had said to her once. "People dress up and pretend to be characters to figure out a fake murder. It all sounds so very droll."

"I like children's stories." Evie said, smiling "And then I like to look at the people in my life and see what character they would be." She laughed as Darwin abandoned his game with Alex and pulled the protesting boy with him to the group on the couches.

"That sounds like fun." Darwin said with a gleam in his eyes. "What character would you be?" He asked, thinking about the possibilities.

"I'm not sure. I usually toss up between Cinderella or Thumbelina."

"Well then, I'm prince charming." Sean stated matter-of-fact with a wink at Evie.

"No, you're the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, if I only had a brain." Evie said and Raven laughed. Sean mock pouted and folded his arms across his chest.

"You can be prince charming if you want to, or-" Evie stopped speaking when the lights went out in the room. "What's going on?" She asked, feeling along in the dark to grab Sean's hand. They heard someone stumbling in the dark and then the door that connected the rec room to the rest of the CIA building opened and light flooded in.

"Oh, hello Agent Lanley, the lights have gone off in our room. Do you know why?" Darwin asked.

Lanley nodded his head and smiled. "Curfew." And then he closed the door in Darwin's face.

"Well, at least he didn't say classified." Sean said. Laughing, the group staggered around in the dark, said goodnight to each other and then went off to their rooms. Once Evie had closed her door she realised that the entire time she had been walking around in the dark she had been holding Sean's hand. Blushing, she placed her hands on her cheeks to cool them down. She couldn't stop herself from smiling though as she went to sleep.

XxXxXxXxX

The next two days crawled by with a few of the group ignoring the others, Evie at one point had tried to talk to Angel but it hadn't gone well. After a few "is someone talking to me?" and "did you hear that?" Evie gave up trying and thought it best to allow Angel to get over it in her own time.

They were all gathered in the rec room after dinner, just sitting around reading, playing pinball or just talking quietly to each other when a strange noise was heard outside their curtained window. It was followed by a loud thud.

"What is that?" Alex asked, stopping his game and turning to look at the others who were getting up out of their chairs and moving towards the window as the next 'bamf' and 'thud' were heard.

"It's probably just the agents being stupid again." Angel muttered, pushing her long hair back behind her ears.

Hank pulled the curtain back and they all looked out of the window. They couldn't see anything on the grounds at all and just as they were about to turn back to what they had been doing before they were interrupted, a shadow passing over the moon.

"What is that?" Evie asked, pointing up at the strange silhouette and moving closer to the window to get a better look.

"Is that a person?" Hank questioned, moving his glasses down his nose to get a better look. In the time it took for them to process what they were seeing the person was already hurtling down to the ground and they stepped back from the window as it impacted. Raven and Angel screamed and the others stepped hastily away from the window that showcased the body just meters from it.

"It's Agent Black." Evie whispered, her voice trembling. "What's going on?" She turned to look at the others when the strange sounds started up again and more bodies started to fall from the sky. Raven cried out and stumbled backwards, tears in her eyes and her breath hitching in her throat. It was then that the CIA agents came running out of the buildings as the sirens started to blare.

"We're under attack." Darwin said, as the agents in front of the glass shouted at them to get back. It was then that the mutants saw who it was that was attacking them. He looked like the devil, red skin, tail, black hair and goatee. Pointing, the mutants shouted at the agents to turn around. The agents turned and opened fire only to have the red demon vanish and reappear behind an agent, killing him before moving off to the next one.

Alex, Darwin and Troy stood before the group of mutants, stepping backwards from the scene that was playing out before them. They were almost to the other side of the room when crashing and screaming was heard from behind the second glass window. Hank uncurtained that window and they all stepped back in awe of the two tornados that twisted along the grounds, picking up people as it went along and throwing them about.

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" Angel asked, her voice raising hysterically, her breathing fast and eyes bright.

"Don't panic, we'll be fine. They're the CIA, we should just stay here." Evie mumbled, her eyes wide as she watched an agent get flung towards them. She was pulled down and covered by someone else as the window smashed inwards with the impact of the body. The man rolled to a stop just inches from Raven, lifeless and she screamed. Hank lifted her away from the body and then pulled Angel after him as well. They huddled together watching everything and not knowing what to do.

"Stay there." An agent yelled as he passed the room, gun firing at the disappearing red demon. They all crouched down on the ground, breathing heavily. Raven and Angel were crying, Hank was squeezing Alex's arm tightly and Evie huddled against Sean's back as he crouched in front of her. Troy with Darwin were standing before them, arms spread, ready to protect. Tears leaked out from Evie's eyes and she rested her forehead against Sean's shoulder blade.

Two more agents were thrown into the room and the ones outside shooting the red demon were dying just as quickly as they were arriving.

"I'm not staying here." Darwin called. "Come on, let's go." He pulled Angel up and they formed a line, each holding on to each other as they hurried across the room and into the corridor that led to the rest of the CIA compound. They were met at the end of the hall by a group of agents. Everyone was panicking, they pushed and pulled and shoved the mutants away.

"Get back, get back." The agents yelled as Darwin shouted, "We can help." Just as they were pushing through the wall of agents a blast of heat and fire raced towards them, the ground rocking beneath their feet. The mutants spun on their heels and raced ahead of the agents. Evie found Agent Lanley running beside her and she gave him a frightened look that was mirrored. They entered the rec room and shut the door. They backed away from it as fighting and shouting could be heard from behind the door. They could hear whimpering and pleading and then the voice of Agent Lanley could be heard clearly through the door.

"The mutants are right in there, I've told you where they are, please don't kill me." And then there was silence.

Evie blinked back tears, fear receding in the face of the betrayal of Agent Lanley. Why would someone do that? She couldn't even think properly as the two mutants from outside came through their respective broken windows and closed the distance between them all. She wished she could disappear and hide somewhere and forget everything, just leave it all behind. A hand grabbed hers and held on tightly and she looked down and then up at the boy standing next to her. His eyes were wide and his usually pouty lips were pulled into a thin line, his face was pale and his eyes misty but he was standing strongly next to her. He was going to face this threat and Evie found the strength she needed from him. These people surrounding her were her friends; the ones who were attacking were not.

Evie squeezed Sean's hand tightly and smiled gently up at him. He smiled grimly back and then took a step in front of her when the doors opened and a strangely dressed man waltzed through.

"So this is where you were hiding." The man said happily and he turned to the red demon. "Where's the telepath?"

"Not here." The red demon said with a heavy accent.

"Excellent, then I don't need to wear this ridiculous helmet then, do I?" He took a step forward and he smiled handsomely at the group of huddled and frightened mutants. "My name is Sebastian Shaw. I'm not here to hurt you, why would I? I'm one of you. When mankind discovers who we are and what we can do, we will each of us be faced with a choice. Either we can be enslaved, captured, treated as animals and freaks, or we can become Rulers, Kings and Queens of this world." He smiled at them all and held out his hand. "Come with me and I will ensure that you are treated as you should be."

The eight mutants stood there quietly watching this man, afraid to do anything, and then Angel stepped forward, taking hold of the man's hand and standing beside him.

"Wonderful, anyone else wish to join us? If you're not with us then you are against us." He warned lightly.

"What are you doing?" Evie asked, stepping around Sean and staring at Angel incredulously. "These people just killed hundreds of CIA agents without even batting an eyelash and you're going with them?"

Angel smirked and crossed her arms. "Did you hear what that Agent said? He gave us up to be killed so that he could live. They don't think we're human, they don't want to protect us. I'm not going to be on the losing side, I don't want to end up a circus freak with people staring and pointing at me. This is my decision, we don't belong here and that's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Then tell that to the CIA Agents who died to protect us, they're not all stupid or selfish. Don't go with him, Angel."

Angel said nothing, just smiled wider as Tank moved towards them and took a stand next to her. The others gaped at them, unbelieving of their decision.

"Are you going to try and stop me as well, Evie?" He asked his voice dangerously low, dark eyes intense as he stared at the young blonde before him. It was almost a challenge and one she did not want to take up.

She couldn't even speak as the five mutants moved out of the wrecked rec room and stood in a line, holding hands.

"Wait." Darwin called out; he glared at Alex and shoved him before climbing through the window to get closer to them. "I'm coming too."

Raven and Evie cried out as he stood staring at them, the remaining five mutants spread out to face the ones that were leaving them. Alex in the forefront.

"And what's your mutation?" Shaw asked as he grinned like the cat that got the canary.

"Adapt to survive." Darwin shrugged. "So I guess that means I'm coming with you."

As Darwin stepped up between Angel and Tank he stared at them all and then pulled Angel towards him shouting, "Alex, now!" and Alex screamed for the others to get down. His mutation sprang up around him in bright red hoops and rushed towards Shaw. Darwin's skin and clothes changed into armour to keep Angel and Tank safe from Alex's mutation.

Shaw smiled brightly as he caught the mutation power and held it in his hand. Azazel pulled Angel and Tank away from Darwin and herded them back towards Janos as Shaw stalked towards Darwin, keeping Alex in sight.

"Adapt to this." He pulled the energy he had received from Alex into a small ball of sparkling red energy and opened Darwin's mouth with a hand to his jaw. Darwin's dark eyes widened as he watched the energy leave Shaw's hand. There was a bright flash of blue and the energy rebounded back at Shaw. Releasing Darwin the energy absorbing and wielding mutant turned hard eyes to the mutants standing in the window.

"I wonder if you can reflect this?" Shaw asked with a tilt to his head, smile bright as he released the energy at the mutants standing there watching him. He grabbed Azazel's hand and they teleported away.

Evie had moved as soon as she had realised what Shaw was going to do to Darwin. She hadn't been sure her force field mutation would be able to do anything to help, but she knew she had to try. This however, the energy that was hurtling towards her and the others, might be a little more difficult for her to handle. Breathing in deeply she stepped forward, arms out wide and watched with watering eyes as the energy grew in size. With a scream she felt as if all the energy and strength in her body had leapt from her and rushed out to meet the energy. A bright blue flash blinded her eyes and she fell backwards as something cracked and shattered. She was caught by strong hands and gently held as sound faded away. Looking up through the haze in her eyes she saw worried blue eyes stare down at her.

"HANK!" Sean screamed as he held Evie. Blood was flowing all over the place, out of her ears, eyes, nose and mouth. The shield that she had created had somehow turned to glass when Shaw's energy had impacted on it and some of the glass had impaled her. Sean's hands were trying to put pressure on her wounds. Raven knelt next to him and Darwin was hurrying over to the window, his body still encased in metal. Alex fell down next to them, shock rushing through his system as he looked at the blonde lying in Sean's arms, covered in blood.

"Am I dying?" Evie asked, her voice wobbly and strangely hollow.

"No." Sean gritted out, searching frantically for Hank who had run off to find a medical kit.

"HANK!" He yelled again, cursing the scientist for not being faster.

"Are you sure?" Evie questioned. "I'm sure I heard a Banshee." She whispered, smiling gently up at him.

Sean laughed and wiped at his eyes, Evie's blood combining with his tears of relief and frustration.

"Well, if you can joke at a time like this, then you should be fine." Raven assured, sniffing and wiping her nose before putting pressure back on Evie's wounds.

"I'm here. This was all I could find." Hank announced as he raced through the destroyed rec room. Darwin helped him to open the medical kit. Raven pushed Alex to lie on his back and to lift his legs up to help him with his shock. Then the three mutants got to work doing rudimentary first aid, trying desperately to help their friend, and hoping that help was on its way.

"I think Charles and Erik will be angry." Evie commented as they ripped her clothing to have better access to her wounds. "No peeking," she protested, glaring blearily at them all. "They said not to destroy the place. I think we broke that rule."

Raven laughed along with Darwin and Hank. "I'm sure they'll forgive us." Darwin reassured. They were interrupted as CIA Agents came running towards them, medical bags slung around their shoulders and others carrying guns and rifles.

"Clear." One of the Agents called and they hurried over to the broken window and to the huddled group of mutants.

Hank, Darwin and Raven moved out of the way as the agents took over their first aid. When they tried to move her she screamed so loud and were shouted at by the four other mutants still standing that they left her where she was to work on her.

They were in the rec room for another hour, answering questions and getting looked at medically before they were allowed to leave. Raven went through each person's room and grabbed a bag of clothes for each of them while Hank helped Sean carry Evie out of the rec room and to the entrance of the CIA building, the only place safe enough to wait until they were given more instructions. Darwin followed behind them with pillows and blankets.

Raven stared at the five mutants waiting for her, a smile of relief on her face as she walked slowly towards them. Evie was out cold, wrapped in blankets and pillows, her head resting on Sean's lap. Alex sat next to him, his face still pale and a blanket around his shoulders as he lent tiredly on Sean's shoulder. Darwin sat next to him talking quietly to Hank. Raven dropped the bags down in front of them and checked in on Evie.

"You get my sunglasses when you were in my room?" Sean asked, voice low and tired. Raven nodded and retrieved them for him. He put them on and lent back against the wall as Raven stroked Evies hair. The girl didn't even stir in her sleep. Raven moved over to sit next to Hank. It was going to be a long night.

"What do you think they'll do with us?" Darwin asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Raven yawned and lent against Hank sleepily.

"Well, the CIA building is destroyed, the mutant they were hunting down came to recruit us and we couldn't do a thing about it. I'm thinking they're just going to dissolve the mutant division and send us home."

"I'm not going back to prison." Alex mumbled, shaking his head for emphasis.

"We won't let them. Besides I quite like being with you all. I don't want to go back to how it was before all of this." Darwin said, clapping Alex on the shoulder. "We'll just tell Charles and Erik that when they come back from their holiday in Russia."

Raven laughed and shook her head. "Well, I hope they bring me back a souvenir."

XxXxXxXxX

It was early morning when Erik and Charles along with Moira and their team arrived back at the CIA off Site Compound. The emergency crews and CIA agents milling about at the front did not bode well. Charles hurried over to the mutants loitering along the wall outside when he noticed them. He hugged Raven close as she ran into his arms, tears glistening in her eyes.

"We heard what had happened as soon as we arrived back in the States. We'll make arrangements for you all to be taken home." Charles said softly, taking in the battered appearance of them all.

Sean looked up at them, his sunglasses hiding his eyes. "We're not going back and Alex isn't going back to prison."

"Angel and Troy went with Shaw after he killed all of those agents, and then he tried to kill Darwin and almost killed Evie." Alex said quietly, avoiding eye contact. He shrugged. "We want to stay here and learn to control our mutations. We want to help you stop him."

"We can't stay here." Hank declared. "Even if they get this place back up and running it's not safe, they knew where to find us."

Erik watched them all, blue eyes taking in the determination of the mutants sitting before him.

"We can train you to be stronger so that you won't feel unprepared again. You have mutations and they can protect yourself and others. "He said with strong conviction. Charles turned to eye Erik for a moment before nodding his approval.

"I agree with Erik, but you will all need to work hard, train and let us help you to gain better control." Charles watched as the young mutants before him nodded their heads in agreement. "Good, then I have just the place for us to go."

"Where?" Hank asked, pulling his glasses off and rubbing at his eyes.

"Home." Raven declared with a bright smile at the other mutants, arms still around Charles. "Let's go home."

XxXxXxXxX

TBC

AN/ so this is the end of the weekend so updates will be slower as I have work. I'm hoping that there will be one during the week and there will be definite updates on the weekend. Thanks for all of the great reviews, makes me happy to know people like the story. I'm having a lot of fun with the way the characters are developing on their own, it's quite fun.

I thought banshee in the movies was a funny guy, what with his opening scene trying to pick up that chick in the aquarium. That's why his character is the way it is in this story. Have a good week.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After a storm comes a calm.

It took a few hours before everything had been organised. Darwin and Erik had headed off to get the vehicles that they needed to carry all of them to Charles' house. Darwin had been the best choice as he had stated that he knew a guy who could lend them a few cars for practically nothing. Also, his being a taxi driver gave him the knowledge and contacts necessary to help the group of stranded mutants the best.

Hank and Raven had headed off to round up as much of Hank's research and machinery as they could, placing it in a borrowed CIA truck and organising for the Jet to be moved to a hanger closer to Charles' estate.

Charles and Moira went straight to the centre of information that had been set up just outside the CIA building to take care of clean up and paper work. They met with the man in charge and with only a few 'suggestions' were they able to gather all of the recorded information of the group of mutants, as well as renounce their partnership with the CIA.

Sean and Alex waited patiently, Evie still sleep on Sean's lap. Alex had run off and come back with a bag of food that he now shared with Sean, both boys watching the clean up and emergency crews as they shouted orders and information to each other. Body after body was dragged out in black body bags and the boys both looked down at Evie; cuts and bruises adorned the skin that they could see.

"It was a close call last night." Sean said softly, running a hand gently through Evie's tangled hair, trying to smooth it out. Alex grunted and turned away from the two mutants next to him. "It could have been worse." Sean commented, glancing sideways at Alex to see the mutant stiffen his back and clench his fists and teeth. "Someone could have died." He pushed and Alex pushed back as he stood up and faced Sean, his entire body taunt and ready to snap.

"I lost control and I could have killed everyone, is that what you want to hear?" Alex cried, face red and angry. "It's all I ever do. I know it's my fault she's hurt and I'm sorry ok, I'm sorry." He ran his hands through his hair and turned away from Sean with a sigh.

"Well, now I know why you haven't said a word all night. Sit down before you fall down." Sean commanded, pointing to the ledge next to him. "It wasn't your fault so stop blaming yourself. If anything, it was Darwin's fault for even suggesting you use your powers against a mutant even Erik couldn't take down. It was stupid and reckless, but I understand why he did it, why he wanted you to use your mutant power.

"We couldn't just let those two leave without trying something. Sure, Evie tried to talk to them but sometimes you have to hold people down and shout some sense into them. We couldn't have known he would absorb your power, which he would then use to try to kill Darwin with. It was Evie's choice to save Darwin and put herself in danger, and it was that same choice that saved all of us. I don't like that she got hurt, but I think being hurt is better than being dead." Sean shook his head and grinned at Alex who scowled back at him. "Next time we'll know their powers, we'll know how to use ours and we don't let this happen again."

Alex unclenched his hands and sat back down next to Sean and Evie. Pulling his knees to his chest he rested his head against them and sat quietly for a while, taking in what Sean had said.

"I'm still sorry." Alex said a few minutes later, keeping his eyes averted from the boy next to him.

Sean nodded. "So am I."

They were still sitting in silence a half an hour later when Darwin arrived back with Erik and two beautiful Chrysler Windsor cars. Stunned as they watched Darwin and Erik step out of them, they laughed.

"Darwin, are you rich?" Sean asked, grinning. "Because I've never had a rich friend before." Darwin laughed, shaking his head and pointed to Erik.

"_He's_ your rich friend; he paid for both of them. He said, and I quote, 'If we're going to need some cars, then we might as well get good looking ones.' I thought he was taking about girls the way he was going on about cars." Darwin laughed and came to sit beside them.

"Maybe it's the metal." Sean suggested, wagging his eyebrows at Erik and then stopped at the glare sent his way by the older man.

"Oh you're back, wonderful. We just need to get Hank sorted and then we can head off." Charles called as he walked towards them, Moira MacTaggert beside him. "If you want to get squared away into the cars, I believe, Darwin, you volunteered to drive one of the cars? Erik, if you could handle the truck with Hank's belongings? I'll drive the other one."

Sean gathered Evie into his arms and stood slowly. Darwin hurried to open the back doors to the Chrysler Windsor and helped him to place her gently in the car. The boys, with Alex's help, piled blankets and pillows into the back and then Sean went to the other side and slid in next to the injured girl. Alex hopped into the car next and Darwin stood at the driver's side and smiled at the others.

"Guess this car's full." Darwin shrugged and slid inside the car, pulling the door closed and winding down the window to wait for the others to arrive.

"Right, well it looks like they're raring to go. Think we can get the hint?" Charles asked his companions with a grin. He then placed his fingers to his temple and sent a quick message to Hank and Raven. They replied to him that the truck was ready to go and he sent Erik to go and bring the truck to the front so they could start to head off. He gestured for Moira to follow him. Charles picked up Moira's overnight bag and placed it in the trunk of the car before opening the door for her. It wasn't long before Raven came bounding around the corner, followed by Erik and Hank in the truck. She slid into the back seat of Charles' car and closed the door.

"Let's go." She yelled, pumping her fist in the air energetically. Everyone seemed ready to leave behind the memory of the CIA building and Charles dared not think about what might have happened to the group of young mutants. It didn't bare thinking of.

Charles led the way of the convoy, as it was his home they were headed to. He listened as Raven spoke about the things Hank had needed and where the jet was going to be moved to. Moira asked her a few questions and that started the two girls off on a long and interesting conversation.

In the second car, however, the boys were arguing about which station to listen to.

"I'm the navigator so I get to choose." Alex protested, twisting the dial and batting Darwin's hand away.

"You are not navigating, we're following the first car. So if you want to be accurate I, the driver, am navigating the car to follow the first car and therefore, I get to choose the station." Darwin countered, a sly smile on his face as he changed the music station.

"But nobody wants to listen to this jazz crap." Alex whined. "You agree with me, don't you Sean?"

Sean shook his head and turned to watch the city pass by. "I don't really care, as long as it's quiet. I've got a headache." He rubbed at his temple and frowned down at Evie. "Did Hank pack more pain killers?" He asked, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. He stole a pillow from Evie's feet and pushed it behind his head, closing his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"Yeah, I think it's with him in the truck." Darwin said and then cursed as Alex took the time that he was distracted to change the radio station.

"Well, first stop we make we'll get it off him." Alex said, grinning in triumph at Darwin. Darwin rolled his dark eyes and shook his head.

"Fine, but after the first stop I get to choose the station." Darwin negotiated.

"Done." Alex agreed. "But by the time we head off again I reckon I'll be asleep anyway. Right, Sean? That way we won't have to listen to Darwin's bad taste in music."

There was silence from the back and both mutants at the front turned around to stare at Sean and Evie. Evie hadn't moved, still curled up and asleep hidden under blankets and pillows, her head resting on Sean's lap. Sean sat, head tilted back and glasses hiding his eyes, his hand resting in Evie's hair.

"Huh, got a camera?" Alex asked, smirking at Darwin. The other boy laughed and shook his head.

XxXxXxXxX

They stopped for lunch in Baltimore, just a small diner along the highway. Raven hurried inside with Hank and Erik to get the group a few booths. Charles and Moira followed behind them at a leisurely pace, stretching out their muscles as they had not been able to rest since their plane flight from Russia and the subsequent destruction of the CIA off site base.

Alex and Darwin were standing at the left side backseat door, ready to help Evie get inside the Diner for some food and a restroom break.

"Evie, Evie." Sean said loudly, gently shaking her shoulder. She buried under the blankets to keep warm and ignored the sounds that were trying to pull her from sleep.

"Just pick her up man, I'm starving." Alex suggested, tugging at the blanket that was wrapped around Evie. Alex hoped that without the warmth of the blanket their 'sleeping beauty' would wake up.

"That would bring too much attention to us." Darwin cautioned, looking around them. "We're already causing a stir." Alex followed his line of sight and shrugged.

"So a bunch of locals want to take a look at our shiny cars, so what?" Alex shrugged away Darwin's concern and finally tugged the blanket free from Evie. She squawked in protest and curled up to keep warm. Sean laughed and slowly sat her up, hands supporting her back and under her arms. She fluttered her eyes tiredly and groaned as the movement caused her pain.

"Come on sleepy head, time for some lunch." Alex called as he stepped back to allow Evie to slowly put her legs out of the car.

"What am I wearing?" She asked tiredly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and squinting at the sun.

"Here." Sean handed her his sunglasses and she took them gratefully. "That was all we could find that might fit you, your other clothes were ruined."

Uncertainly, she sat at the door of the car and looked up at Alex and Darwin who stood in front of her, arms out and ready to help. She then looked down at her clothes and sighed, they were terrible. Black dress slacks and a white shirt that was buttoned wrong. She could see the bandages and where blood had seeped through. She wasn't wearing shoes but overly large men's thick socks and she didn't even want to know how her hair or face looked. Grabbing the hands offered her she stood unsteadily on her feet, letting out a sharp gasp as pain spiked through her at the movement. She swayed as the blood rushed away from her head at the change in position and she fell back into Sean who had come up behind her to steady her.

"I know I'm devastatingly good looking and all, but that's no reason to swoon." Sean laughed quietly in Evie's ear. She swatted at his hands weakly and frowned.

"It's not funny." She pouted and ignored the comments of the other boys as she started to walk. They were halfway across the car park before she even thought about how ridiculous she must look. Alex stood to her left and was holding her by her elbow, Darwin to her right and had a tight grip on her hand. Sean walked behind her, hand to the small of her back. Rolling her eyes behind Sean's sunglasses she shook them off of her and stepped away. She swayed dangerously but held out a hand to stop the boys from approaching her.

"Now I know I'm the damsel in distress in this instance and it is your natural inclination as knights in shining armour to come to my aid. But I do think it is quite ridiculous to have all three of you hover over me. Now, have your duel and decide who it will be." Evie said humourlessly, a bright smile directed at them. The three boys turned to each other and held out a fist.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors." They shouted and held out their hands. Darwin laughed and punched his fist in the air.

"Rock destroys scissors. I win, now will you yield?" Darwin asked, brown eyes alight with delight. Sean smirked and shook his head.

"Never!" He cried and put out his hand again. "Best of three." Sean challenged.

Rolling his eyes Darwin stood ready and then watched as Alex flexed his hands to get ready for the 'battle.' Evie laughed and crossed her arms over her stomach to hold her sides as the laughter had hurt.

"Rock, paper, scissors." It was another five rounds until Sean was pronounced the winner amongst grumblings of cheating and pushing and shoving. Alex walked in front of Evie and Sean while Darwin walked behind them, just in case she decided she did want to faint.

They entered the Diner and joined their friends who had joined three tables together and were currently perusing the menu. Evie sat down gingerly next to Raven and smiled warmly at the blonde who patted her back gently.

"Are you feeling ok? Do you need the pain killers that Hank's got?" Raven asked.

Shaking her head Evie pulled the menu from Raven's hands and smiled at the sound of protest she made. "Hey I was reading that." Raven cried.

"I know," Evie said and then pointed to the menu. "I'll have the cheeseburger with a cola." Then she handed the menu back to Raven. Evie then lowered her head into her folded arms and let the voices of the others wash over her.

"Are you ready to order?" Sitting up quickly Evie bit her lip in pain, her eyes watering. The unfamiliar voice belonged to the waitress; she wore a canary yellow dress with a white apron pressed neatly. Her hair was pulled back in a cute pony tail and she smiled brightly at them, her eyes travelling over the male portion of their group and completely ignoring the female. Evie snickered and nudged Raven next to her.

"Oh, you're awake." Raven joked, her eyes twinkling in mirth. She then rolled her eyes at the waitress flirting with the boys and cleared her throat loudly. "I'll have the club sandwich with a cola, She'll have the cheese burger with a cola." Raven ordered for Evie and herself, she smiled at the waitress prettily and sniggered as the girl jotted the orders down before returning her attention back to the boys.

"I'll have the burger with the lot and a water." Sean ordered and then slouched back into his seat beside Evie, stretching his arm across the back of her chair and ignoring the looks the waitress was throwing around. He plucked the sunglasses off of Evie's face and tucked them into his shirt pocket.

After the others had ordered, Alex receiving a slip of paper from the waitress that revealed to be her phone number. They sat around and waited for their food to arrive.

"How much longer until we get to your home?" Darwin asked, yawning. "We'll get there before night, right?"

Charles looked at his watch and then sat back in his chair to think. "Another six and a half hours to drive, that's if we don't make any more stops."

The others started to talk about places to rest and the best times to do this while Evie turned to Raven and tugged her sleeve. Evie mumbled something to her and Raven laughed before bending closer, asking Evie to repeat what she had just said.

"I need you to help me to the bathroom, please." Evie whispered, embarrassed.

"Oh, we'll…yes." Raven stammered, standing up and turning to help Evie to stand. "Just off to powder our noses." Raven winked and helped Evie shuffle over to the bathroom.

"This is so embarrassing." Evie muttered and glared when Raven laughed and agreed with her.

Once in the bathroom and Evie was able to take care of business the two girls stood in front of the mirror and stared at the mess of cuts and bruises covering Evie's skin.

"Was it bad?" Evie asked, fingering a cut just above her eyebrow with a frown. "That might scar." She said.

"I don't think any of us have ever been so scared in our lives. I think Sean cried and Alex went into shock. Hank…well, you know Hank, he's a scientist so he looks at things differently. Darwin was pretty calm, I think. You…there was so much blood and you were making jokes but we were scared you wouldn't make it, you know?" Raven revealed, eyes averted from the reminder of the night before that was so very visible on Evie.

"I was scared, too." Evie confessed with a rueful smile. "I'm just glad that everyone is safe." She continued as she wiped a paper towel over her face to get rid of some of the dirt and dried blood.

"I think we all are."

"Did Angel and Troy really go with them? After that man tried to kill Darwin?"

Raven paused and stared at Evie's green eyes. "Yes…they did."

"Do you think we could have done something differently to change their minds?"

Raven shook her head and placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "They made their own choice, just as we did ours."

Evie nodded and placed her hand over Raven's and smiled at their reflection. "We're going to have to fight against them when we go up against Shaw." Evie pointed out. Biting her lip she stepped away from Raven and made her way slowly to the door. "We're going to have to be tough, to not be so weak."

Raven grabbed Evie before she left the bathroom and spun her around. "You are not weak, Evie. Everyone gets hurt and if you become too tough then you'll end up being like Angel and Troy. We don't want to be like them. Having emotions, needing others, that's not weak, that's strength. We are a team, Evie. You, me, the boys. They are helping you now because they want to, not because you're weak. They are helping you; just as I am because the truth of it is, Evie…you saved us."

Raven shook her head at Evie and hugged her fiercely. "And we were scared we'd lose you. Let us mother you and look after you for a bit."

Evie hugged Raven back and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. "Only if I must." Evie joked and both laughed and hugged a little longer. "Ok, you're hurting me know." Evie said only half in jest and she pulled back from Raven. "I think lunch is ready." She said and wiped at her face to hide the fact that she had been crying, Raven doing the same. They laughed at each other, then, arm in arm they walked back to their table just as their food arrived.

"Good timing, we were debating sending in a rescue team. We thought you might have gotten lost on your way back." Charles stated, smiling brightly up at the two girls as they sat down across from him.

"That or eat your food so that it didn't go to waste." Sean said as he took a drink of Evie's cola, ignoring her protest.

"We were just discussing the situation with Sebastian Shaw and the things that he said when in your presence. The others also mentioned the mutant power that he displayed." Erik brought up as he took a bite of his club sandwich. "They said that he absorbed Alex's power and Alex stated that he had used a considerable amount against him." He continued after chewing his food thoroughly.

"We just want to know how much he can output as well. Evie, how powerful did Shaw feel to you, how much power hit your force field?" Charles asked eagerly.

The others quietly sat, eating their food as Evie thought back over the night before, the feeling of the power hitting the force field and she swallowed her food before looking up at the mutants waiting for her answer.

"It felt like only a portion of his power, like he could have used more but knew he didn't have to. It was only a small amount but it was enough to almost kill me." She said truthfully, taking another bite of her lunch and turning to Moira MacTaggert. "Are the CIA still searching for Shaw?"

The CIA agent rubbed her jaw as she contemplated what to say. Pushing long dark hair out of her eyes, she nodded. "They are still searching for him but it is no longer the top priority. Russia has become the main topic for the CIA to focus on. I will keep in contact with the CIA so that we will know when they do know what his location is."

The others nodded and returned to their food. Charles paid for the lunch and everyone made a bathroom stop before they headed out again. It was another four hours before they stopped again. This time just outside of New York so that they could get some snacks and do a quick bathroom run. The drive from Baltimore to New York had been a quiet one. With full stomachs and almost 24 hours without sleep the mutants not driving had drifted off to sleep.

The last hour and a half of the drive to the home of Charles Xavier was spent talking, laughing and with a long and drawn out game of eye spy, everyone was more than ready to get out of the car and stretch…and possibly to get away from each other. There was only so much time people could spend together without getting on each other's nerves.

They got out of their vehicles slowly, stretching in the setting sun and staring at the castle that stood before them with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"Are you rich, too?" Sean asked, spinning to look at Evie and Alex. Pointing at each other and then themselves, the two mutants in question shook their heads mutely. "Ok, good. I thought for a moment then that all of my new friends were rich and I was feeling a little low on the economic scale."

They laughed and slung arms around each other as they looked up at the beautiful building. Three stories high with light cream walls. Towers and spires with engraved stone decorated the castle. Manicured lawns with beautifully presented displays of flowers and trees, their new home had to be the most exquisite building the rest of the mutants had ever seen.

"I see living here was a terrible trial for you." Erik said dryly, hands in his coat pockets as he eyed the impressive wealth that was blatantly displayed.

Raven jumped up and hugged Charles from behind. "I, of course, made it bearable." She laughed and then dragged Charles towards the Mansion. "The inside is just as nice as the outside, only warmer. I'll give you the tour and show you to your rooms." She linked her arm with Charles and smiled happily, glad to be home.

They were shown the kitchen and dining room, the drawing room (though no one understood the purpose for that room), and the games room (which had a billiard table displayed in the centre of the room). They were taken to the living areas of the house and each was given their own room. The two bathrooms on the floor were divided up between the boys and Evie was given a room with its own ensuite (she didn't tell the boys that).

Sean looked around his room and then fell onto his bed face first and lay there for a while. It felt wonderful to be on a king sized bed with soft sheets and even softer pillows. Groaning with effort he pushed himself up and inspected the closet and drawers for clothes. Finding sweatshirts and sweat pants he rolled his eyes but pulled out a pair and then headed off to the bathroom to get cleaned up before dinner. He grinned cheekily as he slammed and locked the door in the face of an outraged Alex who spluttered for a few moments, turned and tried to hurry to the other bathroom only to find that it was already being used.

Everyone congregated in the dining room at seven o'clock on the dot, hungry and clean and ready to have a good night's sleep. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to find that on weekends the Xavier household had a cook and cleaner and so they were treated to a lovely feast of roasted chicken and assorted vegetables with thick gravy.

"We will need to discuss how we will spend our time here. You all promised to train and I would like to talk about mutant specific training." Charles opened up after dinner had finished had retired to the drawing room to relax. "I would like tomorrow to be an evaluation day in which Hank and I run a few tests to learn more about your mutations, if that is agreeable to you all?" There were a few wary glances but everyone agreed to the terms after a moment.

"Good, then I would like Erik to teach you all some hand to hand combat skills. I would like you, Erik, to work especially with the girls as their mutations are defensive in nature." Charles continued as he turned to Erik and then to Raven and Evie. All three nodded in agreement and Charles smiled in delight.

"Good, after dinner tomorrow we will reconvene here to discuss how to continue training you. Tomorrow you may explore the house while Hank and I test you one at a time. I will summon you when I need you." With that said Charles stood and said goodnight to them all, Moira and Erik following.

"Combat training with Erik? Wasn't he an assassin?" Alex asked in surprise.

"No, a ninja." Sean corrected, a smirk sliding onto his face. The others burst into laughter; it took them several minutes to calm down.

"Mutant time." Evie reminded Hank and Raven who flashed her a grin, Raven transforming to her true form and Hank taking off his socks.

"I think it will be fun." Raven stated, golden eyes bright with the concept of learning how to defend herself. "It will be valuable to learn, especially as we will be facing Shaw."

"If we have our mutant powers under control then I don't see the point of learning to kick people." Alex protested.

"What if you can't use your mutation safely? What if the enemy is close to one of us? Or if your mutation doesn't work against the enemy? I think it will be important for us to learn." Darwin said, eyes levelled at Alex. The blonde boy shrugged his shoulders and muttered a 'whatever' but he could see the logic in what they were saying.

"Yeah, and the good thing about having combat training is it will make us ripped." Alex smiled brightly at them and flexed his arm.

"Some of us are already ripped." Sean stated modestly. "Want to see?" He propositioned, getting ready to take his sweatshirt off.

"Stop, stop!" Evie protested, holding her sides as she laughed. "Ow, that hurts." She complained as she wiped her tears of mirth from her eyes. Sean smirked down at her.

"I'll give you a private show later." He wagged his eyebrows; Evie blushed and shook her head.

"No thank you, and on that note, I think I'll go to bed." Raven grinned at Sean and Evie, raising an eyebrow teasingly. "Yes, if you'd help me Raven?" Evie asked, pushing Sean's hand away as he went to help her. Sean placed his hand to his heart and staggered back to his chair, sitting heavily and sighing greatly.

"I am hurt that you would reject your knight in shining armour." He said dramatically.

"I don't think that's proper conduct for a knight." Darwin pronounced. "Alex?" He offered and the blonde grinned, knelt in front of Raven and Evie, hands clasped in front of him and batted his eyelashes at the girls.

"You would do me a great honour if you would allow me, a humble and unworthy servant, to escort you paragons of beauty to your chambers." Alex grovelled.

Raven turned to Hank and held out her hand. "If you would, kind sir?" She asked and then, hooking her arm through Evie's, the three of them left the room.

Alex turned to Darwin and Sean and shrugged. "You just can't compete with the tall, dark and silent feet."

"Type." Darwin corrected.

"Same difference." Alex shrugged, turned and slapped Sean consolingly on the back. "There's always tomorrow."

Sean laughed and rubbed a hand down his face tiredly. "And the next day, and the day after that."

The three mutants made their way to their rooms and said goodnight, happy to be safe and surrounded by people who cared about them.

XxXxXxXxX

Everyone woke at different times of the morning; they stumbled down to the kitchen and made their own breakfast. The first to be called to see Hank and Charles was Darwin; he was in with them for over an hour before he left with a confused look on his face. Evie was summoned next and as she followed Charles instructions she wondered what would be discovered about her mutation.

The room they had chosen for their 'testing' was large with high ceilings and beautiful panels of dark mahogany wood. The windows faced the sun and streams of sunlight fell onto the leather chairs in the middle of the thick carpet. Charles and Hank were seated; Hank fiddled with a machine and didn't even look up at her as she sat down in the vacant seat.

"Evie, how are you this morning? I see that you were able to walk here by yourself." Charles observed with a smile. Evie nodded and she pulled her long hair up into a sloppy pony tail to get it off of her face.

"I'm good, Professor X." Evie grinned cheekily and nodded a hello to Hank. Charles chuckled and extended his hand to her which she took.

"First, I will have a look at your mind. I won't look at your personal thoughts or memories, though some may come to me as I try to find out more about your mutation." Charles explained. Evie shrugged.

"I trust you, Professor." Evie gave her permission and Charles entered her mind, passing through her strong mental shields that were a part of her mutation with care. Her mind was oddly mirrored and he travelled the paths until he found what he wanted.

It was almost a half an hour before he emerged from Evie's mind; he blinked up at her sleepily and smiled while patting her hand.

"Such an interesting journey and your mutation is also unique. Your main mutation of being invisible can encompass other things as well. I believe it would be possible for you to turn someone else or an object invisible. We will test this and try to strengthen this ability with distance. Your natural ability to go unseen by the public eye is a defence mechanism of your mutation. You can turn it off already but only with great concentration. We will have you meditate to help with that concentration. Lastly, your force field is actually the most interesting aspect of your mutation.

"The force field is actually a part of your mind, it's a projection. It reflects back whatever is thrown at it. Now, your mind at the moment is mirrored and so your force field becomes a mirror to reflect the attack. I wonder if we could make the mirror harder or softer so that it won't break under pressure again. I will draw up a training program for you tonight, Evie. Before you go, Hank would like to do a few tests, blood and the like just to have a look at your physical differences. The ones we can't see." Charles clarified and turned to Hank who took out the appropriate tools.

"It will sting just a little." Hank cautioned as he took Evie's blood. She flinched as the needle entered her skin and watched in fascination as her blood was pulled from her body. Next, Hank placed electrodes on her temples and chest, blushing and apologising as he did.

"I'm taking readings of your brain patterns and heart rate. I'll need to take measurements as well next. It is to see if you have longer arms, or legs…you know, like I have large feet." Hank informed. Evie allowed Hank to complete all of her tests and thanked the two mutants for their time. She waved goodbye and left the room thinking about what Charles had discovered about her mutation. She was excited to start training as soon as possible.

She had made it to the kitchens for a snack when Alex popped his head into the door and called her name.

"If you're looking for the others they're outside near the west fence looking at the forest." He told her and then disappeared around the door, off to have his own test. After grabbing an apple and a handful of nuts, she followed Alex's vague directions and finally spotted the group of mutants and Moira at the edge of the Xavier property.

"What are you all looking at?" Evie asked as she arrived to see them shading their eyes and peering into the forest.

"Raven said there were deer on the property but we had to be quiet to see them." Darwin explained. Evie looked over to see Raven avert her eyes and she laughed loudly and patted Darwin's shoulder consolingly.

"I think you've been had." She said, her words were confirmed when Raven cracked up laughing, eyes bright with mischief.

"So how was the mind probe?" Sean asked, hands deep in his pockets and sunglasses hiding his eyes.

"That's an interesting choice of words." Erik commented. "But apt." He agreed.

"You've had Charles in your head?" Moira asked, interested.

"It is a fascinating experience, almost like you're talking to yourself but using a different voice. It takes your mind awhile to figure out it's not you." Erik explained. Moira nodded in agreement.

"Yes, did you know that he can stop people's movements?" She asked and the others murmured their surprise. "He must know his mutant power very well to be able to do that."

"And very powerful." Erik mused.

"I think it's different when he goes in your mind to look for something. It felt kind of like my mind expanded, or was growing…I couldn't hear properly and my eyes closed because it was too bright." Darwin explained.

Sean looked startled. "Does it hurt?" He asked worriedly, glancing at Evie, the action hidden by his sunglasses.

"No." Raven and Evie said simultaneously. "It's just a strange feeling." Raven continued with a shrug. "You'll understand when you go for your test. So who wants to see the pool?" Raven asked.

"You have a pool?" Moira questioned with a hopeful smile. "I do like swimming." She explained, abashed.

"Of course, it's this way." Raven pointed and led the group with Erik and Moira hurrying to follow. Sean pulled his sunglasses down over his nose to look at Evie and Darwin.

"Of course." He repeated with a laugh. Evie and Darwin joined him and linking their arms together they followed after the others.

XxXxXxX

After dinner that night, an interesting blend of vegetables and meat in a soup that Evie, Raven and Erik had concocted, they retired to the drawing room again. The room had changed drastically from yesterday's soft couches and bookshelves. It now contained a heavy round table littered in papers and diagrams. Nine chairs surrounded the table, all with high backs and rich dark brown leather. Each person took a seat cautiously, intrigued with the new set up of the room.

"Erik and I have decided that this room will now be called the war room. It is where we will discuss tactics, training schedules and any news we or the CIA uncover. We will now talk about the fascinating things that we have found with your mutations and the training that Erik, Hank and I have devised.

"We have two different strengths in our group. Offensive and defensive mutations. Raven, Evie, Darwin and myself all have defensive mutations. Hank, Sean, Alex and Erik all have offensive mutations. We are evenly matched and so a well balanced team. Erik will work with all of us to get us into shape and to learn the basics of combat. I will help you harness and control your mutations.

"Darwin, you were the first to be tested, your mutation helps you to adapt to survive. We will test this by having you outside every day in a different part of the grounds. I want you to become one with the surroundings. Chameleon yourself so that you can adapt to the surroundings. We will also train you to force yourself to adapt before circumstances arise, almost like a catalogue of changes you can make. Do you have anything else you would like to add?" Charles asked, looking over at the quiet mutant. He shook his head, eyes distant as he thought about the direction his training would go in.

"Raven, I want you to spend time with Moira to learn how to use your mutation to mimic people's movements and speech patterns. Your mutation helps you to change into people but not be them, you won't know their thoughts or how they would speak. Moira has spent time in undercover missions and will better be able to help you come up with training. You will also spend a lot of your time learning from Erik to defend yourself." Charles continued down his list or papers as he spoke.

"Evie, you will work on hiding things and people as often as you can. You will also need to practice pulling up your force field at will. Everyone will be having meditation in the mornings together as you will all need to strengthen your minds to help you to control your mutations. You will also spend time with Erik and Raven for combat training. I believe you will be good as sparing partners.

"Now Alex, I have a bunker in the basement that my father built and I believe it will be a safe place for you to practice your mutation. Hank has informed me that he believes he can build something to help you focus your mutation. So until that is built we will prepare that room for you and you will take part in meditation and combat training with Erik." Charles said, glancing up from his papers to stare at Alex. "I assure you, you will be safe as you use your mutations, as will the others here."

Alex looked away from Charles and shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest and ignoring the stares of the others.

"Right now, Sean…you have an interesting mutation. Hank has told me that you are lighter then you should be. He believes that your bones are porous, that coupled with your supersonic mutation…well, we believe that you can fly."

"What?" Sean yelled, startled.

"Of course, you'd need the right equipment; Hank is going to make that for you. Until that is ready you will do throat and breathing exercises to strengthen the muscles of your throat and chest. As with everyone else you will also do meditation and combat training with Erik. Now Hank, I have construction crew coming in to build an obstacle course for you to help with your agility training. I believe it will be beneficial to everyone as well, but most specifically for your mutation. You will run every morning with me after meditation. And last but not least, Erik."

"Me?" Erik asked, eyes narrowed as he looked over to his friend.

"You will practice moving big metal objects to help you strengthen your control. We will all do mediation." He said, voice brooking no argument. "Right, does anyone have any questions? I'll write up the schedule and your individual tasks and post it in the hallway by the front entrance tomorrow morning. We will meet in the east garden after breakfast at seven to begin with our meditation."

Everyone sat in stunned silence and Charles smiled brightly, packed up his papers and with a jaunty wave bid them all a good night. The others slowly and quietly got up and made their way to their rooms, too tired and full of new information to even think about staying up late. They said quiet farewells and went to sleep quickly, dreading and anticipating the beginning of their training. It was an exhausting mix of emotions to feel.

XxXxXxX

The next morning at seven o'clock nine people sat in the dawning light in a circle, eyes closed and in complete silence. They all breathed in harmony, relaxed and calm. The tranquillity was broken by a fart. People giggled, held in laughter and peeped their eyes open to try and figure out who it had been.

"Silence." Erik barked and they all subsided back into their poses, relaxing their breathing and muscles.

They were successful for the hour meditation, though some of the mutants had become agitated with sitting still for so long.

After their meditation all of them decided to go with Hank and Charles on their run. They went at their own pace, some faster than others and all were happy to release a bit of energy.

Raven, Evie and Moira ran together, keeping pace and staying focused on the backs of the mutants in front of them. They were running at a slower pace to compensate for Evie's injuries but she was holding herself well and did not complain if she was in pain. Alex and Sean were having a race to see who could out sprint the other. Darwin and Erik were just behind them keeping pace and enjoying a quiet talk. Hank and Charles were behind the girls talking about mutations and the topic of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde started up.

They ran around the entire grounds of the Xavier mansion and by the time they were finished, everyone was sweating and out of breath and smiling from the effort. They then split off for their own duties; Alex wandered off with Darwin to help him with his adapting to the surroundings task as he still had to wait for Hank to make his machine. Sean followed Evie who went back into the house to help her with her task,

"So you have to disappear objects?" Sean asked as he started to collect together ten small objects and place them on the table in front of Evie. "Try something small first." He suggested and took a seat across from her. Evie looked at the assortment of objects and chose the smallest one. A foreign coin. She put it in her hand and concentrated on making it invisible. Sean laughed.

"Now I can't see either you or the object. Make yourself visible." He said, leaning back in his chair.

Evie frowned and made herself visible. She groaned as the coin also became visible.

"Maybe it's because you're touching it." Sean suggested, taking the coin from her hand, his fingertips brushing along her hand and causing her hand to tingle where he had touched it.

Nodding, Evie glared at the coin, willing it to go away, to disappear and before her eyes is did.

"Sean? Can you still see me?" She asked, not taking her eyes from the coin.

"Yes." He said and Evie sighed in relief and sat back in her chair, releasing her concentration and the coin became visible again. Clapping his hands Sean laughed in delight. "Can you make a rabbit disappear?" He asked. Evie smacked his arm and smirked.

"No, But I think I can make you disappear." She mock threatened. Sean pouted and crossed his arms.

"No you wouldn't, you'd miss me too much?" It had meant to sound confident but he was uncertain if she was joking or not. Evie shook her head and stared at another object making that one disappear as well.

"No, I suppose I can't make you disappear." Evie said thoughtfully. She turned a wicked grin at him and Sean swallowed hard. "You'd have too much fun being invisible."

After lunch the mutants met back up for sparing. Erik taught them the basics of punching and blocking and set them up with gloves and pads. Raven and Evie faced each other, smiling brightly with hair pulled back from their faces and matching grey sweatpants and t-shirts. Sean and Charles were paired up and Darwin and Hank stood facing each other. Alex was paired with Moira and he frowned in distaste.

"I object." Alex said, hand in the air and a petulant frown on his face. "I'm not going to hit a girl."

Scoffing, Moira punched him hard in the chest and he fell down on his backside. Staring up at the brunette, his mouth hanging open in surprise he spluttered in indignation. "What was that for?" He asked. Ignoring the snickers from everyone else he brushed his pants of dirt and stood.

"In battle you might have to fight a girl to save your friends, or your life. Being a gentleman in real life is fine Alex, but on the battle field they are just another person." Moira pointed out.

Alex groaned but squared off against Moira, allowing her to punch first so that he could get comfortable with the idea of hitting a girl.

The rest of the group followed Erik's barked orders; they listened as he corrected their stances and aim. He took his duty seriously and was very happy that he was able to help these mutants learn how to defend themselves and others. Rubbing at his arm unconsciously over his number tattoo he was happy these mutants would not have to endure torture to learn how to control their mutations or how to fight. They continued for another hour before he told them all to go and freshen up.

The group of mutants complained about being sore and tired as they helped each other into the mansion and raced for the showers. Laughing and bickering was heard as Sean and Darwin were faster at getting their things together.

"I'll make dinner tonight." Evie called and there was a chorus of volunteers to help her.

Charles stood next to Erik as they watched their team and he smiled up at his taller friend.

"This is how mutant life should be, Erik." Charles stated softly. "Learning to use their powers, helping each other out. Living together, making friendships that will last. It gives me great hope." He smiled and clapped Erik on the shoulder. "Wonderful work today with the training, don't you think? Now, if only they would take meditation a little more seriously."

Erik laughed and shook his head. "They're young, Charles, it will take time for them to learn. I just hope that this happiness isn't short lived." He stated grimly.

They parted ways and headed to their own rooms to get ready for dinner and a report on how their individual mutation controlling tasks had gone.

The war room meeting had been interesting. Each mutant reported on the progress of their mutation and how they were feeling. Hank told Alex and Sean that in a few days time they would be able to start their own practice of their mutations, Alex was a little more enthusiastic than Sean.

"I don't see why you feel me jumping out of a window is a very cool mutation. Anyone can do that, maybe people not in their right mind, but still." Sean protested weakly, shrugging off everyone saying how cool it was going to be for one of them to fly. They all remembered Angel and knew that if Sean could master it then it would be an advantage for their team when the time for battle came.

"I'll help you with your throat and breathing exercises." Evie offered after the meeting, everyone too tired after their first day of training for games. They were beginning to realise that the training they had signed up for wasn't going to be as fun filled as they had first thought. The young mutants were now tired and sore and had no time to just relax and play about.

Sean raised his eyebrows and leant against Evie's door frame with a smirk on his lips.

"And how will you help me with that?" He asked hopefully. Evie looked up at him and shrugged innocently.

"Singing, I think. They do a lot of throat exercises and you need to know when to breath so that the notes aren't disjointed. I found a music room after my shower today and thought we could do that tomorrow after my own exercises?" She put forward optimistically with a smile.

Sean slumped against the door frame and laughed at himself. Nodding he reached out and squeezed her hand. "That sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow then, though I warn you, I have a terrible singing voice. Good night." He said and released her hand, backing away.

Evie smiled up at him. "I'm sure it can't be any worse than Alex's." She laughed quietly. "Goodnight, Sean." She said and then entered her room and closed the door.

Sean stared at the closed door for a moment, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head. He then turned around and came face to face with a smirking Alex. Rolling his eyes, Sean side stepped the blonde and made it to his room before Alex spoke.

"Tomorrow, man, always tomorrow." Alex said.

"And the next day," Sean replied.

"And the day after that." Alex finished with a grin and a wave goodnight.

XxXxXxX

TBC

AN/ so this was going to be a longer chapter but with people wanting updates I thought I'd just cut this in half and stop here for now. Next chapter will be out at the end of the week. Thanks for the patience.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After the calm there is a storm

"There is no way that I'm singing that song." Sean protested. He sat beside Evie at the Piano in the music room that she had discovered the other day. The room had beautiful bay windows that looked out over the east gardens and allowed natural sunlight to brighten up the room. Musical instruments lined the back wall and sheet music was stored in shelves just above them. The piano took up most of the room with four velvet cushioned chairs against the wall facing the door.

"It's by The Beatles, it's a wonderful song." Evie cried aghast as Sean took the sheet music from her hands and flung it across the room.

"_I Wanna Hold your Hand_?" He scoffed. "Please, just do it, don't sing about it!" Sean smirked and grabbed Evie's hand tightly. Evie fought him off and punched his shoulder before clearing her throat and straitening her shoulders. Running fingers across the black and white keys she started the scales and glanced out of the corner of her eyes at Sean.

"Ok, we'll do the scales until you can find a song you want to sing and I can play." She compromised and Sean rolled his eyes.

"Fine." He slumped next to her and glared at the piano. Evie's fingers stopped on the keys and she turned to Sean, a frown marring her features.

"If you don't want to sing then you don't have to Sean. I just thought that singing would help you to strengthen the muscles you need to practice for your mutation." She said, twisting her hands together and turning away. "If you had another idea that I could help you with…" she trailed off as Sean grabbed her hands and she looked up at him.

"No, it's a good idea, I just feel stupid singing by myself." He confessed and Evie smiled brightly up at him.

"Well then, let's do the scales together." And her fingers went back over the keys and she sang the scales, holding the notes longer or shorter. She had fun trying to trick Sean into holding a note longer or shorter than she played. Laughing and singing together they lost track of time. They didn't notice when the sun went down or when Raven poked her head in and watched them for five minutes after she had turned the light on.

They did stop when they were called for dinner and helping each other they packed up the music room. Walking down the corridor towards the stairway they continued singing the song they had made up about the others in the Xavier Mansion.

"Thinking thoughts that think their thoughts

But are they thoughts that you thought

Or thoughts that someone else thought

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Metal makes the man, or is-"

"What are you singing?" Raven asked as Sean and Evie made it to the dining room. Both mutants looked at each other and then back at Raven before laughing and shaking their heads. "Ok, I don't really want to know." She said and picked up her knife and fork to start eating. The others sat down laughing and talking while they ate. Raven looked around at the table and smiled happily, they felt like one big family and it wasn't something that she was used to. Her heart felt full with love for the mutants sitting around her, here was home.

XxXxXxXxX

It was four days before Hank had finished making the machines and tools necessary to help Alex and Sean with their mutant abilities. The entire house watched as Hank explained the round machine that he held out to Alex. They strapped him in to it and talked about the mechanics or the machine and how it worked. He then turned to Sean and held out an outfit.

"I am not wearing that." Sean said matter of fact, crossing his arms over his chest, nose up in the air.

"You'll need it to fly." Charles stated.

"Then I won't be flying." Sean replied with logic.

"It's not that bad." Evie spoke, fingering the material of the outfit gently. "Yellow is a very becoming colour."

"Stop being such a baby, if I have to wear a circle then you can wear arm flaps." Alex said. He grabbed the clothing from Hank and shoved it into Sean's arms. "You go first." He volunteered the red head and pretended not to notice his glare. The rest of the mutants talked excitedly as they waited for Sean to change into his new flying clothes, debating on where they would launch him from. Evie bit her lip nervously; she was worried about the change in Sean's attitude when his mutation was brought up. He seemed to get nervous, defensive and he didn't want to use it. She could understand his feelings though, the manifestation of their mutant powers was a frightening time and there was no one there to talk to about them.

Or, and she smiled at the thought, he was afraid of heights. Dismissing that thought she clapped along with everyone else as Sean stepped out of his room in the clothes Hank had made him. Sean rolled his eyes and gave a dramatic bow before following behind Charles who led the way to the window he was going to jump out of. The group of trailing mutants split up to watch in the room adjacent window and Evie, with Darwin, made their way outside to get a better view.

"This is stupid." Sean muttered as he tugged at the flaps that connected his arms and legs together with material. "Only idiots throw themselves out of windows…and people who are suicidal." He turned to Charles and Hank who stood on either side of him and helped him through the window.

"Now, remember that it is a muscle, you have been strengthening it for the past four days. You control it." Charles encouraged. Hank nodded his head sagely.

"I don't think we should do this." Sean protested as he looked down the three stories and waved weakly at Darwin and Evie who waved back up at him.

"It's perfectly safe." Hank assured smiling. "By the calculations that I have done and the models of flight that I have observed, the material will help you to have optimum lift. I also-"

"-quite Hank." Charles interrupted with a smile and a tap on Sean's shoulder. "You control it." He reminded Sean.

Sean scoffed and stared down at the ground, swallowing nervously. It was a long drop and if Hank's 'calculations' were wrong then he was going to drop like a stone.

"A muscle." He repeated under his breath as he stood up on the window ledge. He could see out the corner of his eye the others leaning out the window and narrowed his eyes to focus. "You can do this." He told himself. Then with a yelp he launched himself from the window and forgot to scream. The wind whistled past his ears and he watched the ground get closer and closer. He bent his knees and landed heavily, rolling three times before coming to a stop inside a bush. He groaned at the pain shooting through his legs.

The sun was blocked from his eyes and he rubbed at his fuzzy eyes to better see who it was. Two faces stared down at him, both concerned.

"Are you alright?" Evie asked. She crouched down and placed a hand on his chest.

Darwin turned away and shouted up to the others, "He's alive." Sean blushed, embarrassed as he heard cheering and clapping.

"Sean?" Evie asked quietly, her voice wavering as he didn't reply to her but continued to blink confused. "Sean, say something." She pleaded, leaning closer. "Do you hurt somewhere? Can you move?"

Sean breathed deeply and with a groan sat up, shaking Evie's hands away. He stood on shaky and aching legs and walked away from her without saying a word.

"Evie? What…where's Sean?" Darwin asked as he turned back around after his shouted conversation with the others still hanging outside the windows of the mansion.

Evie turned green eyes, blurry with tears, to Darwin and shrugged. "I don't think we all should have been here." She said softly. "Do you think we should leave him alone for awhile? Is that the right thing to do?" Evie questioned.

Darwin frowned in thought and nodded slowly. "Let's go inside." He suggested.

As they walked back to the mansion they caught sight of Sean sitting next to the fountain in the east garden, running his hands through the water. Darwin nudged Evie towards him with a smile.

"Go talk to him now, I'll see you both at dinner." He squeezed Evie's shoulder in support and Evie smiled at her friend as he walked away to give the two of them some privacy.

Evie walked slowly over to Sean and sat down facing him. She didn't say anything, just sat watching him and waiting. The sun warmed her back and the wind played at her hair and she waited for some sign that she was welcome to sit with him in silence. Slowly the tension in his shoulders rolled out and his posture became more relaxed. He looked up at her through his messy red hair, blue eyes dark.

"Sorry." He grumbled at her and Evie shrugged, taking off her shoes and socks and then placed her feet in the fountain.

"You haven't got anything to be sorry about." Evie stated with a smile. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Sean didn't say anything for a while. He leaned back on his hands and stared at her. Finally, he nodded his head and sighed.

"I'm alright. Wounded pride is all." He confessed with a laugh. "Everyone else practices and fails in private; I just get to do it publicly." Sean ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I feel so powerless, like everyone is telling me how my mutation should work, that I should fly…I don't feel it. I'm scared if it." His voice trailed off and he looked away from Evie.

Evie pushed her hair away from her face and moved closer to Sean. Touching his hand with her own, she smiled.

"We're not here to laugh at you, Sean. We all want you to succeed and we're doing all that we can. Some of us can only cheer from the sidelines. We're a team and we help each other. You help me with my mutation, when I get angry or frustrated you push me through it. Hank and Charles believe that you can fly. I believe you can fly. You have to believe it yourself." Squeezing his hand and looking into his blue eyes she smiled again. "You can fly, Banshee." She said and then stood up and walked back to the mansion to allow Sean some time to himself to think.

XxXxXxXxX

The war room meeting that night found a sullen and moody Alex and a quiet and contemplative Sean amidst excited mutants.

"Not all of us need to go to the shops." Charles said tiredly. Raven, who wasn't even listening to her friend, was telling Moira and Evie about the mall and how she had been dying to go shopping for a while.

"I think it's a great idea, everyone has been training hard and with all the bruises we've accumulated from Erik's combat classes I think we could use the time off to relax." Darwin stated with a quick glance at Alex and Sean.

"I also need new materials for a few of the items I am making, and the construction crew is coming in tomorrow to construct the obstacle course." Hank stated while he scribbled a few things down onto a piece of paper.

"Alright then, we'll make a list of the things that we need and send a few of us-"

"-we're all going." Raven overrode Charles with a cheeky grin. "We may be an elite team of mutant superheros who will one day save the world. But even superheros get a day off." She said with a deep, exaggerated voice. The others laughed and started to get up out of their seats to go to bed when Erik stopped them.

"We will still do meditation and combat practice tomorrow, and then we can go and relax." Erik said, voice stern. Charles nodded in agreement.

"That is practical, and a nice compromise." Charles then dismissed them all with a good night. He collected his papers, going over the new improvements everyone had made with their mutations.

The next day was a cold and blustery day. Their meditation was conducted inside and then the combat lesson warmed everyone up. Before lunch time they were ready with everyone rugged up in a collection of clothes. As everyone, bar Charles and Raven, did not have many clothes with them they had needed to borrow different garments from their benefactor. Raven, Evie and Moira raided Raven's wardrobe and picked out an assortment of skirts, jeans, blouses and jackets. Evie escaped from Raven's room with only a few accessories and she sighed in relief.

They piled into the truck and one of their newly purchased cars with smiles on their faces and wallets in hand. The drive was filled with questions about the mall and area surrounding it, if they would have lunch together first and when they would meet up. The mall was a large sprawling complex of a variety of shops and the mutants hurried out of their cars to get a look at what life had been like before the CIA.

People bustled about, pushing carts, talking with friends. They made quick plans to meet for lunch in an hour and then parted ways with excited laughter. Evie followed Raven and Moira as they hurried off to different clothing stores excitedly. Evie eyed the expensive clothing and didn't touch anything. She couldn't afford any of the clothes and she felt uncomfortable surrounded by it. She had gotten used to living in the mansion and sharing it with nine other people, but the expensive lifestyle was not for her.

Giving an excuse, she left Raven and Moira to their exploring and went off to find a store more suited to her budget and sensitivities. There was only so much charity people could take and borrowing someone else's unmentionables wasn't one of them.

Sean, Alex and Darwin were in the ice-cream parlour eating the biggest ice-cream sundaes they could find when they saw Evie walk by. Alex dragged her inside and they placed an order for her, challenging her to an ice-cream eat off between all four of them. Evie laughed as the ice-cream sundae was placed in front of her by the boy in his red and white striped uniform.

"Alright, so the rules are as follows. If you get a brain freeze, you lose. If you don't eat all of the sundae then you forfeit the challenge. The first one to eat all of their sundae, is champion." Sean ticked off the list of rules off on his fingers. Evie raised her hand in question. "Yes?"

"What does the champion get?" She asked curiously. Sean rubbed his jaw in thought, a frown on his face.

"A dinner cooked just for them by the losers." Alex exclaimed with delight. "That's a good prize, don't you think?" He asked, looking at the other three mutants sitting with him.

Evie glanced down at her ice-cream sundae and then at the boys with her. She grinned and grabbed her fork.

"You're on." She challenged. They looked over at the clock to watch the second hand until it reached the 12, then they all dug in to their ice-creams with relish. Evie was only a quarter of the way through when a cry came to her left and turning, she watched Sean clutch his head and scrunch his eyes up in pain. Laughing to herself she went back to her ice-cream, only to be accosted by the brain freeze that stung her eyes and sinuses so that she had to stop eating. Glaring balefully at the offending ice-cream for causing her to lose the challenge, she sat back with Sean, eating at their ice-cream sundaes idly as the last challengers ploughed through their food.

"I can't believe I got a brain freeze." Sean cursed as he stabbed the sprinkles into the chocolate sauce, effectively drowning them. Evie shrugged and took a bite of her food.

"It happens to the best of us. Personally, I don't know what I was thinking, Darwin will win. His mutation actually helps him in this instance." She pointed out conversationally. Sean laughed as he watched his two friends battle it out to the end. He nodded in Alex's direction.

"I wouldn't count Havoc out for the count." He warned as the blonde licked his bowl and stood to pump his arms in the air and shout out victoriously. Evie laughed along with Sean and Darwin as their friend danced a victory dance and slammed the bowl down onto the table.

"I suppose people will try harder when they have something to gain." Evie smiled as Alex sat back down and high fived the other mutants with a silly grin on his face.

"Told you I would win." Alex boasted. They were quiet as Alex outlined the dinner he wanted them to make until he changed the subject.

"Have you thought about what happens after we catch this Shaw guy? Are we going to go back to our old lives?" Alex asked out of the blue as he waited for the others to finish their ice-creams.

"I don't think I could. I've seen so many different things and I've gotten used to the idea of being comfortable with my mutation at home." Darwin contemplated as he ate another spoonful of chocolate sauce.

"I don't want to go back." Evie stated, swirling the remains of her melted ice-cream around. "I was living with my dad and when he was home I tried not to be." She shrugged. "I don't think Charles would throw us out, and what about others like us? Maybe we could find them and help them to get control of their mutations like Charles has for us?"

"I like that idea." Sean commented, stacking the finished bowls together and pushing them to the centre of the table.

"Well good, because I don't want to go back to prison." Alex muttered.

"Will you have to if Charles says you can't stay with him?" Evie asked, concerned. Alex shrugged noncommittally.

"I don't know what they did to get me out, all I know is I'm never going back to being behind bars of any kind. Do you ever think about what that Shaw guy said? I wonder what he meant by rising up against humans." Alex pondered.

"He meant that people get scared of things they don't know or understand. It happens all of the time, just look at what the Nazis did." Darwin pointed out, using his spoon for emphasis. Sean grunted and leant back in his seat, slouching down and throwing an arm casually across the back of Evie's chair.

"We'll figure it out when it happens. No use thinking about the worst possible thing like being killed off and hunted by humans when it won't happen. We're focussing on taking out Shaw, and then when that's done we tell Charles we're staying and work from there." Sean said confidently. The others murmured their agreement.

"What time did they say we were meeting up for lunch?" Darwin asked, glancing at the clock.

"Now." Alex grinned as the others scrambled out of the seats and left to meet with the others.

They made it to the meeting place before Raven, Moira and Hank so the four mutants didn't feel too badly about being ten minutes late. It was another three minutes before Hank arrived and four more after that until Raven and Moira arrived with bags hanging off of their arms.

"Where did you run off to?" Raven questioned, pointing a heavily burdened arm at Evie. Evie evaded the questioning and gestured to the numerous bags instead.

"What did you buy?" She asked with feigned interest. Raven rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Don't think I don't know what you are doing." Raven accused. Evie grinned at her and laughed as Raven meticulously went through each and every item in her shopping bags as they found a seat at the restaurant. Moira placed a bag in Evie's hands and when she asked what they were Moira smiled gently at the younger girl.

"Raven and I picked out a few items for you; we thought you might not have much time to shop for yourself." Moira said with a shrug.

"Thank you." Evie smiled and accepted the bag of clothes. The mutants and Moira sat down at the restaurant table and looked over the menu with varying degrees of confusion.

"What language is this?" Alex asked as he turned the menu upside down to see if it made more sense that way.

"It's French." Sean said, lips pouted as he tried to decipher the pronunciation of the words and their meaning.

"Correct." Erik smirked as he laid his menu down, already decided on what he would have.

"I can't read French." Evie said, placing her menu down and glancing at Erik. "What do you suggest?" she asked.

"Well, the-"

"Hang on-" Sean interrupted with a frown. "Who said we even wanted to eat French food? Don't they eat frogs legs and snails?" He asked with a grimace. "I want real food." He stated and Alex jumped in with a 'yeah' to show his agreement. Erik tilted his head to the side, his expression a mix between amusement and exasperation.

"They serve foods you will be able to eat. Shall I order for you all?" Erik asked politely. The others nodded warily but allowed Erik to order for all of them in French. They were suitably impressed.

"What if they couldn't speak French?" Darwin questioned with raised eyebrows.

"Most French restaurants employ native French speakers. It helps to keep things more authentic." Hank said with a smile as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

They spent a pleasant afternoon together, eating new food that tasted beautiful and the boys were less sceptical or foods they couldn't pronounce. The mutants and Moira continued with their shopping before heading back home to prepare dinner. Evie, Darwin and Sean 'volunteered' their services with Alex off to the side smirking and offering advice on table settings and service requirements. Evie, Darwin and Sean ignored him.

XxXxXxX

The next morning everyone was shocked at meditation when two Moira's sat down next to each other. They both smiled exactly the same and moved identically.

"What…who?" Hank stuttered, wide eyed.

"You have the entire day to guess which one is the real Moira and which one is Raven." Charles explained with a pleased smile. The rest of the mutants narrowed their eyes at the challenge.

"So Moira, what colour underwear do you have on?" Alex asked with a sly grin. The two Moira's rolled their eyes and ignored Alex by closing their eyes and meditating. "Damn, I was sure that would work." He muttered to himself and ignored the amusement of the others.

After meditation Evie laughed happily as Moira 1 came over to her to be her partner.

"Done, you're Raven, I win." Evie crowed in victory and high fived Sean, Darwin and Alex as Raven's image shifted back to herself.

"You should have known better, habit is what will cause you to forget who you are pretending to be." Charles lectured with a smile. "Watch the others today, learn their habits and then try again tomorrow."

Raven frowned and nodded in understanding; she took her position across from Evie and ended up taking her frustrations out on the girl.

Evie nursed her bruises in her mutation practice time with Sean. She had a bag of ice strapped to her shoulder where she had taken a heavy fall and bandages wrapped around her wrists which had become sore from today's beating. Sean looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled tenderly as he handed her a hot chocolate. Evie blinked at the mug that had two pink marshmallows in it and then up at Sean.

"Thank you," she said quietly, blowing on the hot drink and then taking a sip.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked, amused as she winced when she moved to sit up in her chair. Rolling her eyes at Sean, she shook her head.

"I should have waited until the end of the day to announce which one was Raven. I didn't think she would get that upset." Evie confessed with a sigh. Sean shrugged and grinned at the blonde.

"Well, I have an idea that I want to try out with both of our mutations, if you're up to it? You won't even have to move from your seat." Sean suggested.

Evie nodded her head and looked up at him expectantly. "You said that I need to believe that I can fly, I just still can't get over the fact that people jump off buildings and don't expect their screaming to help them. For my mutation to make it possible to help me fly is still farfetched." He held up a hand to stop her interrupting. "It will take me a while to be comfortable with the idea, so I thought you could practice making larger things disappear and I could see if my mutation will let me 'see' it. Supersonic sound should equal echolocation I think." Sean put forward his idea and glanced at Evie out the corner of his eye.

"Maybe we should have called you batman instead." Evie laughed, a bright smile on her face as she watched Sean scowl. Leaning over in her chair she grasped his hand and waited until he looked up at her before continuing. "I think it is a great idea to test you mutation." She encouraged.

Looking at the table across the room from where they were seated, Evie concentrated and smiled in satisfaction as it disappeared. She sat and watched as Sean stood up and faced the 'hidden' table. He took a big breath and narrowed his eyes, mouth pursing and features becoming serious. He then screamed and Evie yelped as the window behind the 'hidden' table shattered. Evie's wide eyes took in the satisfied grin on Sean's face and she forgot all about the mess they had made.

"Did it work?" She asked, allowing the table to become visible again. Sean turned to her and hugged her happily, lifting her off of her feet in his excitement.

"Call me batman if you want to." He said as he stepped away from her and casually put his hands into his pockets and slouched. Evie laughed and pushed his shoulder. Sean's lips twitched and then he allowed his own delighted smile to grace his features.

"Can't." Evie said, shrugging and grinning wickedly at him. "You already called yourself a wailing woman; you have to live with that name now, Banshee." She shrieked as he lunged for her and Evie ran from the room laughing, Sean close on her heels.

That night in the war room Sean and Evie listened to Charles explain that windows could be opened manually and did not need mutant powers to allow fresh air into the room. They both apologised but kept the progress of Sean's mutation to themselves. Sean had asked that it be a secret until he had mastered flying, he wanted to be able to tell everyone everything at once and Evie allowed him this. It was his power, not hers. Alex explained his success in not burning down the bomb shelter and his accuracy in not killing Charles and Hank that day. Everyone clapped and cheered their excitement over one of them having such a great triumph. Charles then outlined tomorrow's schedule and how they would be doing the newly constructed obstacle course.

XxXxXxXxX

Raven whistled loudly next to Evie. She had decided to be 'Evie 2' for the day and grinned at her 'twin' next to her.

"How is this going to work?" Raven as Evie asked Charles who stood on top of a platform that overlooked the entire field. Charles made some marks on his clipboard and then looked down at the gathered mutants. Moira was not with them today, her contact within the CIA had asked to meet her and she had gone off to gather information.

"The objective is to have the entire team finish the course in under ten minutes. You will have three other obstacles to contend with. The first will be Erik; he will combat against you physically, no mutant powers please, Erik." Charles cautioned his friend who nodded his head and then took off into the obstacle course. "The second will be Alex; you will use your mutant powers against your team." Alex frowned at his task. "Evie, you will need to protect your team against Alex." Charles clarified and Evie gulped at her job within the team.

"Lastly, I will try to overtake your mind and control you. You will try to overpower me, push me out of your mind, or defend against your team mates." Charles grinned down at them and waved Alex into the obstacle course. "You have five minutes to come up with a team plan."

"Ok, we need a team leader." Darwin said calmly as he looked at his team, Evie, Evie 2 and Hank pointed at Darwin and he grinned at them. "Sean, do you agree with this?" He asked the red head. Sean nodded and then looked sideways at the two Evies, he poked them both in the ribs, only one laughed. Sean tapped Evie 2 on the shoulder and frowned.

"Raven, you need to be yourself for this one, otherwise it will put the team in danger." Sean stated, slinging his arm around the real Evie. Raven growled as she returned to her blue form and glared.

"How do you all keep doing that?" She asked, vexed.

"No time for that." Darwin slashed his hand in the air to forestall any more non related conversation.

"Evie, you will take point and keep your eyes open for Alex's mutation. That will be your entire job, to protect us from Alex. Sean, you will be Evie's eyes and protection against Erik. Raven, I want you to be on one flank with myself on the other to protect from side attacks. Hank, you're our muscle so you will watch our backs." Darwin looked at them all with a smile. "As a team we need to communicate, no heroics. If you need help then call for help." They placed their hands in the middle of their circle and stacked hands. Grinning, they shouted 'mutants' as a cheer and then started out in the obstacle course.

Their first obstacle was the army crawl under barbed wire through mud. Raven groaned in protest as her clothes were immediately soaked through. She jumped and almost tangled her hair in the barbed wire when a loud bang sounded close to them. With a grunt, Raven narrowed her golden eyes and looked up to see Evie struggling to hold up a shimmering blue shield as blast after blast hit the shield with Alex's red energy mutation. She moved up behind Evie and with the help of the others they pulled and pushed Evie through the army crawl portion of the course with her maintaining her shield.

Once through the army crawl they fanned out behind Evie's shield and waited for Darwin to come up with a plan of action.

"Evie, can you shield us and someone else at the same time." Darwin asked, his brown eyes watching Alex fire blast after blast at them. Evie breathed hard, her entire being was concentrated on keeping the shield strong and large enough to protect the mutants behind her.

"No." She gasped out and blinked sweat from her eyes. "But I can turn someone invisible." She offered.

Darwin nodded his head and then turned to Hank. "You are the fastest of the group. I need you to wait until Alex has aimed his blast at us and then run off, Evie will hide you with invisibility. Take out Alex." Darwin ordered. Evie stumbled under the onslaught of Alex's power and Sean grabbed her elbow to keep her upright.

"You need to turn Hank invisible." Sean whispered into her ear. Evie panted heavily and glanced off to her right where Hank stood, watching, waiting for his cue.

"Now." Darwin shouted and Evie pushed a hand out towards Hank, using physical touch to help her concentration. Hank's image wavered and then disappeared and then Evie was once again locked into battle against Alex. It was only another minute until the blasts from Alex stopped and Hank called to them that it was clear. Raven cheered and slapped Evie on the back, catching her as she slumped forwards.

"I just need a moment." She panted, wiping the sweat from her forehead, hands shaking. She accepted a bottle of water from Sean. He took it back once she was finished and clipped it to the strap across his chest. Sean then pulled Evie to her feet and all five of the mutants looked at the next obstacle.

"Anyone have a problem with heights?" Darwin asked as he rubbed the back of his neck. When no one said anything he clapped his hands together. "Right, Hank stay where you are and help the others when they get to the top. Raven, you go first, then Evie, Sean and I will come up behind." Raven nodded and with an encouraging pat to the exhausted Evie she climbed quickly up the ladder. The platform that Hank stood atop of was 32 ft high. Three wire lines connected platforms together. Raven glanced down at Alex who waved at them happily, his hands were tied together to the platform pole.

"I didn't think it was conductive to team work to knock him unconscious." Hank explained at Raven's questioning look. The blue mutant nodded and then turned around to help Evie up onto the platform. She rolled to a stop next to Alex and tried to slow her breathing. Alex glanced down at her and grinned.

"It's nice to see your force field can take a hammering." Alex congratulated. Evie smiled tiredly up at him and waved her hand in thanks. Sean and Darwin hauled themselves onto the platform and glanced at the area to make sure there were no dangers to the group.

"Hank, you and I will go first. I'll need you to steady me as I don't think I'll be very nimble across these wires. Evie and Sean, you come through second. Raven, you'll be fine by yourself to bring up the rear as your agility will find this obstacle no problem." Darwin strategized. His team nodded their understanding and watched as Darwin and Hank made their way across the wires steadily. A gust of wind bounced the wires and Darwin cried out, but other than that, the two made it across quickly.

"Alright, Sean and Evie come across." Darwin called out, he muttered something to Hank that the others couldn't see and he turned to face away from the two crossing mutants and Hank turned back to Evie and Sean to watch them closely.

The wire bounced under their combined weight and they both held the guiding wire when Sean stopped suddenly. Evie had continued a few more steps until she had realised something was wrong.

"Sean?" She asked, glancing first at the ground far away and then back up at the blank face of Sean. "Sean…don't look at the ground if you're afraid, just look at me…Sean?" Evie shuffled back to stand face to face with Sean and frowned in concern. Evie took one hand from the guiding wire to touch Sean's face. Everything happened quickly after that. With a shove Sean pushed her from the wires, her remaining hand loosened in shock and she screamed as she fell backwards. Before she could fall all the way to the ground her hands were caught by Hank who was swinging upside down from the wire above her. Hank had jumped back on to the wire as he'd seen Sean move, hoping he was fast enough to help his team mates.

Evie glanced down at the ground and then back up at Hank and smiled tremulously. Her heart beating hard in her chest. Raven, Darwin and Hank pulled her back up and away from a now still Sean. They made it to the other side of the platform and watched as he continued to stand there, a blank look on his face, hands white knuckled on the guiding wire.

"What do we do?" Raven asked with a confused frown. "Sean would never hurt Evie. Do you think he is afraid of heights?"

Darwin scratched his head and shrugged."We have to keep going. Sean is a danger now to the team so we will come back for him after the course is finished." The others murmured their acceptance of Darwin's command. Evie, however, said nothing, eyes wide with shock still and her trembling arms were nothing to do with the exhaustion she was feeling but all to do with the fear running through her veins. Something had happened to Sean and she didn't want to leave him there by himself.

"One of us should stay with him." Evie said softly. Darwin grabbed her arm and pushed her forward.

"No, we'll come back for him." He said and ignored her protests, strong arming her down the ladder by making Hank carry her. Hank didn't set her back down until they were inside the maze portion of the obstacle course. Evie frowned and glared at Darwin but followed silently behind the group of mutants as they made their way through. No 'enemies' jumped out at them and so they found the maze exit quite quickly. Their next obstacle was a giant metal jungle gym and standing at the top was Erik. In order to get to the finish line they would have to get through the mental jungle gym and reach the end before their time was up.

"Evie, make us all invisible, Hank carry her. Raven and I will take out Erik." Darwin ordered. Evie closed her eyes and concentrated, her face screwed up in pain as her mutation flared into life. She hadn't tested out the extent of her abilities before but she felt she was reaching the end of the line today with the workout they were getting. Hank picked her up and carried her through the jungle gym silently. They watched Erik from the corner of their eyes as he engaged with his invisible opponents. He flipped through the bars and attacked back with grace and skill. There were grunts and cries of pain form their team mates but in the end they were able to overcome their opponent with superior numbers and the mutations of Evie's.

The four mutants made it over the finish line with twenty seconds to spare. They all slumped to the ground, wiping sweat from their faces and congratulating each other. Alex and Charles made their way over quickly to the group with Erik coming behind them slowly.

Charles clapped his hands and smiled at them all in delight. "Well done, all of you." He said brightly. "You did better than I thought you would. You utilised everyone's strengths well and worked around other's weaknesses. I was surprised that you left Sean behind though, but with time limits I believe that you did what you thought was necessary." He pulled his chart out and scribbled something down.

"It was good to see you taking orders from a leader, which you listened to and did what was told of you. That is an important skill to have when in a battle situation." Charles continued to praise. He turned and waved happily as Sean stalked over to them, a dark look on his face. "I also think that-"he was cut off when a fist smashed into his face and he fell to the ground hard. Sean stood over him angrily, a finger pointed right at his face.

"Don't ever pull a stunt like that again, do you hear me?" Sean snarled, face red with his anger. "Never go into my mind again and make me do something like that ever again, ever! You made me hurt her and I was powerless to stop it." He crouched down to look coldly into Charles's eyes. "You do that again and I will scream until your ears bleed." Sean promised. He stood up and walked away, scowl heavy on his face.

The others stood staring after Sean and nobody went to help Charles to his feet, too stunned by Sean's actions to process what had happened. Evie glanced at Charles who clutched at his bleeding nose before following after Sean, Alex and Darwin went after her. Raven crouched down to Charles and shook her head.

"Really, if you wanted to demonstrate your skill then I would have done so with either Hank or Darwin. They wouldn't have reacted so violently to it." She admonished. Raven patted Charles on the shoulder and walked away to follow after her team mates.

Erik glanced at his friend and put his hands in his pockets, trying to hide his smirk.

"If you say I told you so, I will be very angry." Charles muttered. Erik laughed and pulled his friend to his feet.

"Charles…what's the point in telling you something you already know. Let's go inside and get you cleaned up."

XxXxXxXxX

It was two days before Sean would even be in the same room as Charles again and another day until he would speak to him. Sean had been scared and angry at the power Charles could use at a whim. That he could make Sean do something so horrible and put someone he cared deeply about in such terrible danger. He understood the lesson to be learned from it, he just didn't like that he and Evie were the ones to learn it.

Today was the day for another 'flying lesson,' only this one wouldn't be from the mansion window. They were taking him up to the top of the giant satellite dish. The wind was blowing his red hair into disarray. Hank, Erik and Charles were accompanying him to the top, the others had not been told about this excursion though he had seen Evie following along behind them at one point.

The view from the top was spectacular, rolling green hills and the blue sky overhead stretching away into the distance. He leaned over the edge and gulped, trying to remember Evie's words about believing he could fly. It scattered from his mind as Hank started to talk about trajectory and thermals, wing span and velocity.

"What?" Sean snapped, glaring at the scientist. These people had no idea about anything they were doing. "This is stupid, if your 'theories' don't work then I'm about to die and all you can talk about is that this should 'theoretically' work?"

"Hank, be quiet." Charles ordered. He then looked up at the taller boy awkwardly. "You'll be fine Sean, it is a muscle and you control your muscles. You control your ability to fly and you will." Charles reassured.

"That's easy for you to say, you don't –" he was pushed from behind and he fell from the platform wind whipped his hair into his eyes and he glared up at the three mutants leaning over the edge of the satellite dish and then somehow turned himself over to face the oncoming ground. "I can do this…I'm BanshEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" He screamed and stared with wide eyes as the ground was pushed away from him and he went up and away into the bright blue sky. Sean laughed in joy as he flew, feeling all of the dread and fear leave him and his blood rushed and buzzed with adrenaline. It was the most amazing experience he had ever had in his life. He was flying. "YEAH!"

Sean changed after his flight, the thrill of the flight faded and he thought back to what had happened before the happiness and joy. Frowning, he recalled being pushed off of the satellite dish by Erik. If his mutation hadn't worked he would have died. He threw the uniform across the room in anger and frustration. He hated people pushing him to do things he wasn't ready for, first Charles going into his head and taking over and then Erik pushing him off of the dish. Sean was not going to take it anymore, he was sick of those two doing whatever they thought was right. Who was to say they were right? Glaring at the door when it opened he started when it wasn't someone he should be glaring at.

Evie ducked her head, "Sorry, I knocked but you didn't answer and I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I'll just…er go." She was almost out the door when Sean leapt across the room and pulled her inside, shutting the door behind her.

"It's alright, I was just thinking. Come in, sit down." Sean gestured to the bed, smirking at the blush that stained her cheeks. Rubbing her arms nervously, Evie sat stiffly on Sean's bed.

"I shouldn't be in your room." She protested. "It's not proper." Evie avoided his eyes as he sat down beside her. Sean chuckled and shrugged.

"We're not doing anything…unless you want to?" He asked hopefully and laughed again as Evie punched him.

"I saw you today, when you fell." Evie swallowed hard and turned her bright green eyes on Sean and he licked his suddenly dry lips. "I was so scared and then so relieved when you flew…I just, I had to make sure for myself that you really were alive and well. That I wasn't just imagining that you were safe." She laughed softly at herself. "I know I'm being stupid but…" she trailed off as Sean grabbed her hand and held it.

"I wanna hold your hand." Sean sang softly and Evie grinned as he gently wiped away a stray tear from her face. "I'm fine Evie, today I was Banshee…just like you said I was." Evie smiled.

"Good, I'm glad." She yawned and then blushed as she remembered where she was. "I should er…go now." She said, standing quickly. She apologised and then made a hasty exit from Sean's room. Sean sighed and flopped back onto his bed. He couldn't get rid of the bubbly happy feeling that rose inside his chest as he thought about Evie, nor did he want to.

XxXxXxXxX

They stood together in a circle, arms around each other's shoulders and facing inwards in a huddle. Raven, Evie and Darwin. They were playing capture the flag and had decided the forest along the Xavier estate would be the perfect spot for the game. It was offensive mutant powers verses the defensive mutant powers.

"I'll stay here and make the flag invisible as well as a few surrounding trees. That should keep the other team busy while you go and get their flag." Evie offered with a grin. Raven laughed loudly, her eye bright in the dark of the forest.

"I'll stay nearby, if you do end up getting one of them knocked out of the game then I can take over their identity and walk right into their camp and grab their flag." Raven suggested. Darwin nodded in agreement.

"Good, I'll be a distraction then; I'll find where their camp is and make as much ruckus as possible."

They put their hands into the middle of their huddle. "One, two, three…Goooo Team!" They cheered and then broke apart, ready to put their plan in to action. Raven melted into the surrounding forest, the colouring of her skin allowed her to be almost as invisible as Evie could make herself. Darwin's dark skin also gave him the advantage, his mutation also helped him to adapt to the change of lighting by enhancing his eyesight.

The defensive team was in position and were carrying out their tasks well. It was another five minutes before cursing reached Evie's ears and she placed a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter.

"Evie! Stupid invisibility mutation." Sean growled loudly, he had walked right into an invisible tree and smacked his head against the bark. Sean then smirked, taking a big breath in and then screaming, he turned his head to the side to catch the echolocation as it came back to him. Outlining in his mind the layout of the forest and where the flag was. Evie frowned and with a cry launched herself from the tree she was hiding in. She landed on Sean and pulled him to the ground. They struggled against each other and with a grunt Sean pinned Evie to the ground. He located her team ribbon and pulled it from her hair. She became visible under him and Sean grinned down at her.

"Bang, your dead." He said victoriously, pocketing her ribbon and glancing about him. "If you're dead, then shouldn't your mutation stop?" Sean queried. Evie rolled her eyes, fighting the smile on her face and made everything appear again. Sean sat back on Evie and laughed as she crossed her arms.

"You should have force fielded me out." Sean suggested thoughtfully as he stood and bent down to help Evie up from the ground.

"Bang, your dead." Evie said softly as he felt a tug on his jeans. Glancing behind him he saw Raven wave his team ribbon in her hand and then morph into him, a smug smile on her face. Sean sighed and slumped to the ground, pulling Evie next to him, she yelped as she landed heavily.

The two mutants sat side by side as they waited for the rest of the game to finish around them.

"Next time, don't try to help the dead." Evie said playfully as she nudged Sean next to her.

"Next time, don't get caught." Sean spoke seriously, eyes strangely hard. Evie looked up at him curiously and he continued. "If this were a real situation, and I were the real enemy, then you would really be dead. Don't get caught, Evie." Sean said and he then pulled her to her feet when the others came back to collect their 'dead' team mates.

Raven, Evie and Darwin had won with their sly skills and tactics. They headed inside to celebrate.

After a dinner created by Alex and Erik, a strange mix of meat and desert, they had their war council and then found time to relax and enjoy themselves. Alex, Darwin, Evie and Sean stayed in the games room, having a tournament of pool. They were laughing and joking, smiles on their faces as they recounted the game from that morning.

"You should have seen their faces when Raven 'killed' them all and then took the flag." Darwin crowed with laughter as the others grumbled.

"It wasn't that funny." Alex protested and he sunk the eight ball. Evie then restacked the balls to start her game against Alex, the reigning champion.

"Well, what was your tactic?" Evie asked as she took a shot down the line. She sighed as the white ball was sunk and Alex received two shots.

"Sean was to get the flag with Hank and I defending our own. We figured you would have Evie making the flag invisible and that the rest of you would come for our flag. We didn't think you'd kill him and assume his identity. We forgot about Raven's mutation." Alex said and he grinned as he sunk two balls in a row. The game went downhill from there and Evie said good night to everyone. They waved her away as they continued with their tournament; Sean and Darwin convinced they would beat Alex.

As Evie made her way down the hall to her room she stopped in shock as Raven entered Erik's room and shut the door. She blinked in confusion and continued to stand there as not five minutes later Erik came down the hall from the opposite end of the hallway, didn't see her and entered his own room. Evie thought that maybe she had just been seeing things. She had been so sure that Raven and Hank were sort of 'seeing' each other, just as she and Sean were…kind of, maybe, not yet. She waited another ten minutes and when Raven didn't come back out of Erik's room she wandered down the hall and to her room.

If Raven wanted to be with Erik, then that was her decision, Evie thought, a blush heating her cheeks. She knew what people did together in bedrooms, she had just thought Raven was not that sort of person. Confused, Evie went into her bathroom and splashed water on her face. It wasn't any of her business what Raven and Erik did, she told herself sternly.

Getting ready for bed she closed her eyes and tried to forget what she had seen. It didn't matter to her friendship with Raven, Erik or Hank. If Raven wanted to talk about it later then she would listen. Nodding to herself with the decisions she made Evie relaxed into sleep.

XxXxXxXxX

They were woken early the next morning with a message from Charles to hurry to the games room that held the only television in the mansion. They sat around it watching the news as it reported live.

"As you can see from this diagram, the Russian ship is headed towards Cuba. If it crosses the United States maritime boundary they will be declaring nuclear war against us. The United States has issued warnings for people to be prepared for the worst. Stores are being cleared of food as people stock their bomb shelters to survive.

"The United States Navy will be headed out to keep the borders safe, we must prepare for –" The television was turned down by Charles and he faced the mutants sitting around him. He turned to Moira and she stood up to come and stand next to him.

"The CIA have not been able to find Shaw." She reported, shaking her head sadly. Erik, who was leaning against the wall, ran a hand over his face and frowned.

"He will be close by to this, if his plan is for nuclear war to be started between Russia and America then he will not leave this to chance. He will be near this ship." Erik stated and Charles nodded.

"Let's go and get…Where's Hank?" Charles asked, confused. The others shrugged and with a sigh the mutants and Moira followed Charles out the door and towards Hank's lab. Charles pulled the note away from the door and frowned as he pushed it open to reveal broken tables and shattered glass littering the ground.

Walking over to the big metal box with the X on it he opened it up and grinned.

"I am not wearing that." Sean protested as he fingered the blue and yellow uniforms.

"I suggest you do." Charles said as he re-read over the not. "None of your mutations allow you to survive g-force or being shot at, so yes…you do…maybe not you, Darwin." Charles said ruefully. "Your mutation would help you, and before you start cheering, you still need to wear your uniform. You're part of the team."

"Hank said he would meet us at the hanger where the jet is, and that is an hour away. He must have watched the early broadcast of the news this morning before any of us were awake and went to make preparations." Charles handed each person their uniform, their names were stuck to each one with a sticker. "You have ten minutes to prepare and then we're leaving. Meet me down at the garage." Charles said and then grabbed Moira by the arm and dragged her from the room, asking different military protocol questions.

The others stared at each other and glanced down at the material in their hands.

"These better not be skin tight." Alex groaned as he held his uniform against his chest.

"So this was what Hank was making those measurements for." Evie said with a laugh. The others laughed with her and together they left the room to get ready. It was going to be a very long day.

XxXxXxXx

TBC

AN/ so sorry about the late update, this week has been crazy and sharing a computer with a house full of people is very difficult when you have to fight for time with it. Hope it was worth the wait.

The MUTANT song

"Evolution caused Darwinism, which made the Darwin

But Darwin is Darwinism and he Evolves.

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havoc,

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havoc.

Evolution causes people to change,

Its mysterious, a mystique

The mystery is

How many people you become in the evolution.

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Thinking thoughts that think their thoughts

But are they thoughts that you thought

Or thoughts that someone else thought

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Metal makes the man, or is

It men that make the metal

Or do metal men make metal move

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Screaming flying and flying screaming

Falling freely flying

Screaming is flying and flying is screaming

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Hankin' for some Hank feet

Feet or hands or hands that are feet

Feet hands, hand feet

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Disappear, Diss, Miss, Appear,

Miss disappear, appear, appear

Disappear Diss, Miss Appear

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok

Going round and round

Like a hula hoop on Havok


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

He that seeks trouble never misses

They stood shoulder to shoulder in the hanger, wearing the yellow and blue team uniforms that Hank had made and stared at the jet.

"Is that going to fly?" Raven asked with wide yellow eyes. The jet was magnificent, a sleek body and futuristic feel to it. They had never seen technology so advanced before.

"It better be better then these uniforms." Alex grumbled, picking at the skin hugging material.

"It's not so bad." Sean said with a grin, eyes sliding sideways to glance at Evie who stood next to him. She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest and stepped away from him.

"I think Hank is a pervert." Evie pouted, feeling uncomfortable in the form fitting uniform. She felt uncomfortable in the clothing and felt very exposed.

Raven laughed and pulled at the zipper to her uniform to try and make it a little more comfortable before pointing to Alex.

"At least you don't have a giant circle on your chest." She stated. Alex groaned and rolled his eyes.

"It's to help focus my mutation." He argued.

"It looks stupid." Raven deadpanned.

"I-"

"-Enough" Charles yelled, rubbing his forehead with a hand, he could feel a headache coming on.

"Where is Hank?" Darwin asked as he walked towards the jet curiously. He jumped back in fright when a large blue haired monster jumped out from the jet's bay doors and stalked towards them. "…Hank?" Darwin asked as he shuffled back into the group behind him.

The blue hairy beast tugged at his fur and shrugged. "It seems that the mutation gene that I found accelerates mutation…not reverses it." He growled sheepishly. The other mutants were stunned at the change in his appearance and voice.

"Whoa, you're like a freakin' beast." Alex stated with wide eyes. Hank growled low in his throat and lunged at Alex who stepped aside and almost fell into Evie. "It was a compliment, you look totally badass."

Evie rolled her eyes and shoved Alex off of her. "Are you alright Hank?" she stepped forward and laid a hand on his furry arm, patting it lightly. He turned his yellow eyes onto Evie and smiled, showing fangs that glinted in the fluorescent lights.

"Heh…mutant and proud, yeah?" Hank asked nervously. Raven stepped forward and laid her own blue hand over Hank's and Evies.

"Yeah…mutant and proud." She repeated with a wide grin.

"This is all lovely, but the world is about to go to hell…so shouldn't we get a move on?" Sean asked, his eyes narrowed at Evie's hand on Hank's arm and a pout on his lips.

"Sean's right, let's see how fast we can fly this thing." Erik grunted and moved past the other mutants and towards the jet.

Hank and Charles sat at the front of the jet, working the controls and getting the pre-flight check done. Erik made sure that everyone was buckled in to their seats before taking his own beside Moira. He glanced at the human CIA agent with a frown before turning to face the blue mutant woman in front of him.

"I don't like flying." Darwin said, wiping his brow with a shaking hand.

"Who does?" Sean muttered. Evie grabbed both of their hands and squeezed tightly.

"We'll be fine." She reassured with a tight smile.

"Do you think we are prepared for this? For saving the world from nuclear war?" Raven asked nervously as she turned to look at Erik.

Charles and Hank in front of the jet announced take off procedures and everyone held tightly to their harness as the jet lifted off the ground.

"We will soon find out." Erik said seriously, his eyes hard and lips pressed into a thin line.

The jet shuddered once and then they were off, flying as fast as they could towards the Russian ship.

XxX

They had been flying in relative silence for two hours, Darwin had spoken to Erik about tactics for when they found the Russian ship and then how they would look for Shaw. Their plan of attack was to find Shaw first and then stop the Russian missiles. With Shaw out of the way they were confident they would be able to stop the oncoming war with the help of Moira and Charles working together.

"How do you think Shaw is following the Russian ship? Do you think he is on it?" Darwin questioned with a raised eyebrow, his dark eyes distant as he thought about the puzzle.

"How will we find him? Doesn't he have that crazy helmet thing that stops Charles from being able to find him and read his thoughts?" Raven questioned.

"He surrounds himself with known mutants and Charles should be able to get a read on them. If not then we should be able to find their ship with the instruments on this jet." Erik answered with a grim smile. "We will find him and then take care of the problem."

"Ok team, we are coming up to the Russian ship, we will begin scanning the area for anything out of the ordinary, focus yourselves and get ready for battle." Charles called from the front seat, his fingers to his temple to better focus his mutation. Hank called out readings and banked the jet to fly closer to the water for better visual.

"You find anything yet?" Alex called, his neck straining to see the front of the jet as there were no windows in the back of the jet.

"Nothing yet," Hank yelled back.

"Wait a minute…" Evie said…she quickly unbuckled her belt and moved towards the front of the jet.

"Evie, get back here." Sean and Darwin called at the same time but the blonde ignored both of them and she narrowed her eyes as she scanned the water before her.

"If Shaw made a helmet where you can't read his mind then what's stopping him from making a ship that your mutation cannot penetrate either?" she asked. She startled as a large hand clasped her firmly on the shoulder.

"Or a submarine." Erik murmured. "Get back to your seat Evie… Charles, we may not be able to find him if he is underwater…we need to go straight for the Russian vessel."

"No, it's not too late…Sean can find the ship." Evie said with a glance back at the redhead who was struggling to get out of his restraints.

"What do you mean, Evie?" Charles asked with a raised eyebrow, now giving her his full attention.

"Sean and I…we've been practicing with his mutation…he can use echolocation." Evie explained and she moved aside as Sean finally joined them and he nodded grimly.

"I can do it." Sean said, his eyes narrowed as he looked out over the ocean. "I'll find the ship, you Charles can get the location from my mind…then because its metal Erik can deal with it, yeah?" Sean then turned around trying to focus himself and psyche himself up for what he was about to do.

"Are you sure you can do this Sean?" Charles asked with a worried frown.

"It's not like we can afford to have you making a mistake." Moira joined in, her eyes narrowed. "We need you to be professional about this…not just you showing off for your girlfriend. This is serious, that Russian ship out there is about to launch nuclear weapons at our country and-"

"-look lady, shut up, yeah? I got this." Sean growled. He swung his arms around to loosen up his muscles and then stepped back from the yellow keep clear sign on the floor that was slowly opening up to show the ocean rushing underneath them.

"Are you ready?" Erik asked, coming towards him and Sean jumped back from him with a hand up.

"You are not pushing me out of the plane…I can do this myself." Sean said. He glanced at Darwin, Raven and Alex who were all watching with wide eyes and then he turned to Evie who stood off to the side, holding on to the emergency straps with white knuckled hands.

"Be safe." She called out over the rushing sound of the wind. Her heart pounding wildly in her chest as she stared at Sean, standing at the edge of the opening, preparing himself to leap out. His read hair whipping into his blue eyes. He was a striking figure and she was so very afraid that this might be the last time they ever saw each other.

Sean narrowed his eyes; if he was going to go flying out of a plane and maybe drown in the ocean then he was going to take a minute to have his last words. Ignoring the others in the jet he walked over to Evie and stared down at her.

"Scream if you need me," he said with a cocky grin, he stood as close to her as he could, without touching, though he really did want to touch.

"Isn't that what you do?" Evie replied with an answering grin spreading across her face, eyes sparkling. There was something in the way that he stood, so close to her, leaning towards her and she felt a sudden need to close the distance, her eyes strayed to his pouty lips.

Sean's smile faded and his eyes softened, he reached up and cupped her cheek with his hand, she shivered at the feel of his skin against hers and she swayed closer to him. Sean brushed Evie's hair from her face he leaned forward. "Yeah," he whispered before his lips touched hers gently, lightly, tasting her and he smiled against her lips when he felt a shiver go through her body and she stumbled towards him. He pulled back just a little and watched as her lips followed his, his blue eyes locked onto her dreamy green ones. Placing both hands on her flushed cheeks, Sean licked his lips before stooping down and kissing her with heat and passion, his heart thundered loudly in his chest and he almost forgot himself when he felt her hands fluttering against his chest. Gathering all of his restraint Sean pulled reluctantly away from Evie, his eyes travelling over her face for a moment and then he spun away from her without a backwards glance and took a running leap out of the jet. He was gone before she could even blink properly.

"We'll…that was dramatic." Alex snorted into his hands and Raven shared a smile with Darwin while Erik helped manoeuvre a slightly dazed Evie back into her seat. She was having a little trouble breathing properly and her cheeks were flushed delicately. She would not look anyone in the eye because she was trying so desperately to remember the feel of Sean against her. She had never felt such a strong emotion in her life and her heart fluttered wildly in her chest. For a strange, heart stopping moment she had the thought of just jumping out of the jet after him, to forget all about the nuclear war they were trying to stop and instead continuing where Sean had left off.

"How's he going to get back into the jet?" Raven asked after the clearway doors had closed. Hank turned slightly in his seat at the front of the jet to point to the back of the jet to the doors they had all walked through at the beginning of their flight.

"We'll open those up for him to get back in."

Charles suddenly grinned, his blue eyes alight with triumph as he quickly got out of his seat and walked over towards the clearway doors and waited for Hank to re-open them. Erik crouched down with him as they looked down at the water below.

"Hank, keep her steady." Charles ordered as he then helped Erik lower himself towards the Jet's wheels to balance himself.

"Where is it?" Erik questioned, eyes darting over the waves, trying unsuccessfully to find the submarine.

"There…here, let me show you where." Charles then pressed his fingers to his temple and concentrated to show Erik the sonar picture that Sean had shown him.

"Got it." Erik muttered as he held out his hand, palm facing the ocean and closed his eyes as he blocked out the metal of the jet he was on and the distracting call of the Russian and American naval ships. He felt the slight blip of Sean in the water below and then finally locked on to Shaw's submarine. The metal left tingles all along his spine as he felt its call and he grimaced as the pull of his mutant powers struggled with the heavy object that was pulling away from him.

Gritting his teeth he snarled and let go of the jet with his other hand to try and pull harder with his mutation. He did not notice when Charles swore beside him and distractedly call for Evie and Darwin to hold on to Erik as he abandoned his post. Nor did he notice the two different sets of hands that gripped his uniform to keep him grounded on the jet.

Erik wanted to see this machine, this submarine that Shaw had created and he wanted to crush it in his hands.

"They are almost over the border Charles, do something." Moira yelled as she scrabbled at her harness to find the buckle to release her. Raven rolled her eyes as Charles turned a dour look Moira's way, fingers pressed hard into his temple. He closed his eyes and focussed on the Russian ship, trying to block out Hank's swearing and Alex's whoop of joy as the submarine broke the surface of the ocean.

"That thing is huge." Darwin cried out over the rushing of the wind and he loosened his grip on Erik to get a better look. "How is he even pulling that thing up?"

Evie gritted her teeth as she quickly readjusted her hold on Erik and glared at the dark skinned mutant next to her. "Darwin!" she shrieked, as she slipped closer to the edge of the opening. Darwin yelped and apologised as he quickly reattached himself to Erik.

"What's going on? I can't see jack." Alex grumbled, craning his neck to look at the cockpit and then over to the opening a meter from his feet.

"Charles!" Hank roared as the instruments in the cockpit went haywire and alarms started to beep insistently.

"Hank, move us!" he cried out as he opened his eyes in time to see the missile headed in their direction. "HOLD ON!" he yelled out quickly, re-buckling his harness and trying to help Hank manoeuvre the jet away in time.

There was a scream from the back as the jet swerved violently to the side and Erik cursed as he lost control of the submarine as he was hulled back into the jet by both Evie and Darwin, they scrambled over the tilting jet and pulled their legs back in as the doors closed and locked. Erik snarled and turned towards the cockpit with anger just as the missile hit the wing of their jet.

The explosion knocked Erik, Darwin and Evie off their feet as the jet spun, on fire, flipping through the air. Erik stuck himself to the ship's metal to protect himself and stretched out his hand to do the same for both Evie and Darwin. Raven was screaming, Alex had his eyes tightly shut and Moira had passed out from the g-force of the jet's spins.

"Prepare yourself." The voice of Charles echoed into all of their minds just before the jet hit the sand and rolled.

XxX

Banshee felt all of the breath leave him as he watched the fiery wreckage of the jet and submarine hit the land not so far away from where he bobbed in the ocean, wiping frantically at the water in his eyes. He spun around quickly, trying to work out who had shot the jet out of the sky, why they had done it and with another frantic spin he turned back towards the stretch of beach too far away to swim to, to see if there was any chance his friends…his Evie had survived.

His throat closed painfully and his chest hurt with pain at the thought of never seeing them again. He slapped angrily at the water around him that had for the last ten minutes caused no end of frustration as the water clung to his uniform and he had found no viable way of pulling himself out of the water.

Banshee ran shaking hands through his wet flopping red hair and narrowed his eyes at the American and Russian ships with anger. If they had killed everyone on the jet…no…he was going to be honest with himself, if they had killed Evie then he was going to exact revenge, he was so filled with white hot rage that he knew there was nothing he wouldn't do if they had killed her.

XxX

The first thing that Evie noticed was the pain. She felt like someone had put her inside a dryer and set it to spin for hours, she felt hot and lumpy all over, and she could also feel blood seeping from a cut above her eyebrow that made it impossible to open her eyes. The second thing she noticed was the noise. There was a strong ringing sound in her ears and over that annoying, headache inducing pain she could head shouts and cries of pain. Someone was crying loudly next to her and the jet itself was whining as the metal heated up from the engine fire and missile blast. The third thing she noticed was that she had somehow become stuck against the metal of the jet and was hanging sideways, her neck extended at a bad angle and her arms pinned to her sides.

Coughing and trying to breathe through the pain and the smoke Evie cleared her throat as much as possible "Help." Grimacing at the scratch of a noise that she was sure no one could hear over the other noises in the jet she tried again. "Help!"

There was banging off to the side of her and then a large hairy hand gripped her head to support her neck.

"Evie, where do you hurt? Do you think anything is broken?" Hank asked, his new gravelly voice right by her ear. Squinting her eyes shut tighter against the pain she groaned.

"Everything."

"Erik, can you get her out of this metal?" Hank called, he moved about and she could feel someone else's hands come up and around her back.

"Yeah, I've got it." Erik said as he pushed the metal away from her and held her as her support fell away. Both Hank and Erik then sat her upright against the jet's wall and pressed a compression bandage against the wound in her forehead, cleaning the blood away so that she was finally able to open her eyes. "You got this, Hank? Charles needs me to help him with the others."

"Yes, I think I've got this." Hank answered distractedly as he fumbled around in his bag for more medical supplies.

"How is everyone else?" Evie asked, she winced as he jabbed her in the neck with an injection.

"Charles and I were ok, just a little whiplash, Erik and Darwin were also fine, their mutations respectively protected them. Alex was knocked unconscious and Charles is assessing him right now. Raven has a few burns along her back where the superheated metal hit her and Moira has a broken arm. You weren't strapped in when we were hit and your mutation didn't protect you automatically as the others did."

Evie blinked her eyes a few times as she finally was able to focus Hank and the jet.

"I'll be fine soon Hank." Evie reassured as her head finally cleared of the strange ringing and heaviness that had beset her before. The cut above her eye was only sluggishly seeping blood and other than being bruised all to hell she felt remarkably alright for having survived a crash.

"What happened to the submarine?" Evie asked as Hank finished tying off the bandage around her head and handed her a bottle of water.

"It crashed near us, it too was hit by the missile blast and we have landed on an island of some kind I think."

"So are we going to have to fight Shaw and his men?"

"I think so." Hank replied as he took the bottle of water back from Evie and then helped her slowly to her feet. "How do you feel? Are you steady?"

"Yeah…I'm good, I want to make sure the others are ok." Evie and Hank then moved over to the almost intact cockpit where the least damage had been done to the jet, everyone else was congregated around Charles who had his fingers pressed deeply to his temple.

"What's the plan?" Alex asked, he had a large bruise on the side of his face that was already coloured a deep purple. He was slumped against Darwin's shoulder and gave a tired wave in Evie's direction.

"The American and Russian Naval forces are confused about the jet and submarine and so have ordered a cease fire for now. Sean is stuck in the ocean, he cannot seem to be able to pull himself from the water. I have informed him that we have all survived the crash. I still cannot get a reading from the submarine, although there is movement around it." Charles informed them, his eyes still closed tightly as he concentrated.

"How do you want us to fight?" Darwin asked, his usually jovial face set into hard lines.

"Erik and I will go after Shaw. I will stay here, and as this will be a mutant fight Moira will also remain with me. Raven, you will stand guard and protect us from anything that get's past our defences. Hank, Alex and Darwin, you will need to take out the mutants that Shaw has with him. Evie, you will be our defensive shield. You need to keep everything out of this jet because I need to concentrate on helping Erik defeat Shaw."

"There are at least four of Shaw's known mutants waiting for you; they are standing in front of the submarine as a line of defence for Shaw. They don't seem to be injured from the crash and so be prepared as soon as you step outside of the jet for a confrontation." Charles warned.

The group stood up straight when Charles turned to look at them all and they nodded, Alex saluting sloppily before they turned to the wall closest to them inside the jet and Erik punched through it with his mutation, making a doorway for them to escape the jet as all of their exits had been heavily damaged from the crash. The metal from the jet went flying across the ground, straight towards the submarine that lay beached on the island and they were surprised to see that it took out two of Shaw's mutants in the process. Their enemy was ready and waiting for them.

"Let's go team." Darwin said with a grin, he turned and clapped his hand on Charles shoulder before hurrying to catch up with Erik, Hank and Alex. Evie watched them go and then turned to Raven, her eyes travelled over the tight face of her friend.

"Be safe Raven, you are our last line of defence." She hugged her friend and then stepped out of the jet, blue light encasing her hands and then she set a field around the jet to keep those inside safe.

She had just made it to Darwin's side when Erik ripped open the submarines side and then closed it up behind him. She watched as Angel and the Devil got ready to fight and she breathed in deeply, willing herself to be ready for this, to have her mind focused on this fight, because she remembered how the Devil fought…and he left no survivors.

"Alex, let one rip." Darwin called and Alex threw him an unamused look before he turned around and came face to face with the red devil. The mutant smiled cruelly and grabbed Havoc around the waist, pinning his arms against his sides. Hank roared and lunged, just managing to snare his great paws on the shoulder of the Devil before they all disappeared. Darwin turned quickly and pulled Evie with him as an acidic spit ball came hurling towards them before Angel flew up and away out over to the ocean where three small dots were struggling and fighting mid air.

Evie quickly tapped Darwin's shoulder to gain his attention and pointed at the two mutants who had been hit by the wall of the jet that Erik had thrown.

"We've got our own worries." She said with a frown marring her face. She flung a force field up in time as the metal wall was hurled straight at them. It bounced back from the blue field and then both Tank and Riptide stood before them, both with almost identical looks of menace on their faces.

"What's our strategy?" Darwin asked. He was eyeing the force field as it came under attack from the brute strength of Tank and the water tunnels of Riptide.

"I can use my force field as a barrier for hand to hand combat I suppose, and with being invisible I should be able to hold out against Tank until you finish off Riptide. Your mutation should help you fight against him, right?" she questioned, widening her stance to give herself more balance in holding up her force field.

"Sounds like a plan…ready, on three…one, two, three-" They broke away simultaneously, Evie contracting her force field to hover an inch from her skin and going invisible almost immediately. Darwin spun and rolled onto the sand and then rose up, ready to fight his appointed enemy. He looked on in astonishment as his feet curved out and dug into the ground like large hooks and his chest and arms hardened to stone to make himself immovable against the onslaught by Riptide.

Evie found herself almost having fun as she dodged the decidedly slow but powerful swings of Tank. His almost black eyes glittered with rage and with some kind of strange delight at the same time.

"Ready or not, here I come." He rasped and with a lightning quick move lashed out and hit Evie's force field strongly. He grinned in triumph as she stumbled and moved away from him for a moment to catch her breath, he hit hard. "Maybe you don't want to play hide and seek…maybe you want to play murder in the dark?" He asked with a malevolent tone. Evie ignored his taunts and jumped forwards with a hard kick to his solar plexus and then dodged his jab to her face, she however missed the hook that caught her in the temple and if it hadn't been for her force field armour like protection she was sure she would be out cold right then.

Being invisible had its advantages which she used as much as she could. Moving with quick lightning moves Evie punched, kicked, pushed and dodged around the giant hulking form before her. Her opponents movements were getting quicker and she realised that Tank was trying to follow her moves and get in as many hits on his own as he could. The problem that Evie was finding however was that upholding her mutation for this long and exerting herself in a fight was making her tired a lot quicker than her opponent.

"Found you, you're it." Tank sneered and Evie blinked up into the dark shark eyes of the other mutant in surprise as her arm was jerked hard. He had a hold of her now and she was so surprised that she let go of her invisibility and flickered back into visibility.

"You are so awfully hard to catch…but I wonder if I can crush you just as easily as a bug?" he asked conversationally and Evie jerked her arm back sharply, hoping to pull away from the mutant and his scary, unblinking, cruel eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" Evie asked, her voice coming out fluttery and out of breath, her heart pounding hard and fast in her chest with fear.

The dark skinned mutant laughed harshly and increased pressure on her wrist for a moment, looking thoughtful.

"Because I am stronger then you." He said and then gripped her arm with his other hand and with an almighty roar he snapped her arm in two.

XxX

Sean had finally figured out how to aim his supersonic soundwaves at the water at the right angle to lift himself out of the water and had been headed for the American Naval ship where he could see Alex trying to fight against Angel while dodging the naval officers at the same time. He was startled midflight and almost plunged back into the ocean when a scream ripped through the air with such agony.

Spinning in the air he glanced back towards the beach and shaded his eyes against the glare from the sun to see four dots on the beach fighting with each other, one however looked to be held by another much larger than it and he knew without a doubt that Evie was in trouble. Feeling that same white hot rage fill him as it had before he spun back around and flew with everything he had towards the American Naval ship and Alex.

"You better be ready to jump Havoc, or I'll leave you behind." Banshee yelled and he dipped forward, dodging the acidic spit ball and holding his hand out, clasping hands with Alex who had run and jumped off of the side of the ship. The strain of having another body pulled against Sean's shoulder and his muscles strained with the added weight. He also flew lopsided as he had never tried to fly with extra weight before.

"When we get back you are going on a diet." Sean said through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed on the stretch of beach coming closer to them. Alex looked up at his friend and grinned.

"Maybe you should spend more time in the weights room." Alex rejoined. Sean grunted and went into a steep dive to avoid Angel who was fast on their heels.

"When we get to the beach be ready to fight right away."

"Evie?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow and he shifted his grip against Sean's hand. Banshee glared angrily at the mutant following them and grunted in the affirmative.

"Would you stop that, you overgrown dragonfly?" Alex cried out as they narrowly avoided another acid ball. "It's disgusting for a girl to spit."

Angel laughed, her barely there clothes leaving nothing to the imagination as she dived for them and Alex was given a clear view of her cleavage. He blushed heavily and while distracted forgot to tug at Sean's hand to warn him and he watched in a strange soft of fascination as the acid ball spun through the air and with a sizzling hiss ate through the material that joined to make a wing on Sean's uniform. However the acid did not only eat through the material but with a cry of alarm it started to burn the flesh at Sean's side. Banshee grunted in pain and changed hands for Alex to hold then spun up and around to face the traitor with an angry snarl. He opened his mouth wide and with a scream blasted the flying mutant away.

"Good work, Banshee." Alex called and he almost swallowed his tongue when Sean turned his hard blue eyes on his friend.

"If she delayed me in getting to Evie in time...she won't ever fly again." He said coldly and turned them both back towards the beach. He ignored the pain in his side that burned fiercely for it paled in comparison to the tight feeling in his chest where his heart seemed to be trying to leap out of it.

XxX

Darwin was having a little trouble trying to get as close to Riptide as possible. His hook feet where keeping him from being swept away and he was able to avoid drowning by the waterspouts because of his gills, however it did not matter how hard he tried it felt like he was only walking on the spot. He needed a different tactic and he needed it quickly. He had heard Evie's scream, he was pretty sure there wasn't anyone in the entire world who hadn't heard her scream. But he could not afford to be distracted because he was pretty sure that if he looked away for even a moment he would be dead.

"Give up, little shifter, it's only a matter of time before I run you down." Riptide snapped, his teeth flashing dangerously as he combined two waterspouts and slammed them against Darwin relentlessly.

"I don't know how to give up." Darwin spat, his dark eyes frantically searching the ground for anything that could help him defeat his foe. Looking down at his hooked feet he wondered if he could cause himself to change his body at will. He concentrated on what he needed and wanted, letting it form in his mind and holding his hands out, palms facing his enemy he watched with a start of surprise and triumph as twin harpoons launched from his hands with incredible speed and smashed through the waterspouts surrounding Riptide and imbedded themselves in his legs. With a jerk Darwin pulled the mutants legs out from under him and strode over with purpose. He pulled the harpoons back and felt the strange slithering sucking motion of them being rejoined with his body and turned his fists to stone. He stared down at the mutant that lay clutching his bleeding legs and steeling his heart from the violence he had committed and was about to do he crashed his fist into Riptide's temple, causing the mutant to fall into unconsciousness. Breathing a sigh of relief he almost slumped down in exhaustion next to his unconscious enemy before his sluggish mind reminded him that his team mate needed him.

He turned around and searched the beach for Evie and Tank and was shocked to see her bleeding heavily, her left arm obviously broken with the bone piercing the skin, her face grey with shock and pain and in the stranglehold of the large dark skinned man that used to be their friend.

"Evie!" he shouted and started sprinting towards them, ignoring his own injuries and pains as the realisation that with one move the big brute could snap her neck.

Tank looked up at the other mutant running towards them. He tilted his head to the side to watch the frantic running and then looked down at the barely conscious women in his hands. He could really have just used one hand to strangle her, but the feel of both hands around her neck, feeling her pulse fluttering weakly against his fingers was an intoxicating sensation. Her green eyes were bulging and she scratched at his hands weakly with her uninjured arm as he slowly choked the life from her. Tank grinned viciously down at the too far away mutant.

"He won't get here in time to save you…and do you know why?"Tank asked as he shook Evie to get her to focus on his words. She looked up at him, tears silently sliding down her cheeks as she struggled to breathe. "No? Oh…I'll tell you anyway. It's because-"

"-he's not batman!" Tank lifted his head up in confusion at being interrupted only to be knocked down by Alex who had been thrown at him by Sean, the latter skidding to a halt on the sand beside a gasping Evie.

Alex stood up and blasted the larger mutant away from him, his glowing, energy hoops slicing deeply into his thick skin and the force of the blast knocked him unconscious. Alex then looked up at Angel who had cried out in anger and he sent his energy hoops her way and grinned in grim satisfaction as she screeched in agony when the hoops cut through her wings, plummeting her to the ground where she lay at an awkward angle and did not get back up.

"Alex, Alex I need you." Sean called, he and Darwin were both crouched over Evie, her breathing was shallow and quick and Alex ran back towards them, ignoring the pain in his shoulder where his arms had almost been pulled from their sockets from flying from them and from the force of being thrown into a man almost like a brick wall.

"What can I do?" he asked as he finally was able to look down at his severely hurt team mate. He was almost sick at the sight of her arm and the already discoloured finger marks around her throat.

"Get Hank's medical bag from the jet. Get Raven as well if you can, she knows more about this sort of stuff then us." Darwin ordered, he was positioning himself at her feet and lifting them up above her heart to hopefully help with the shock. Sean was crouched over her, his hands tracing her face and talking to her calmly and softly, trying to reassure her.

Alex stood up quickly and with a final glance at his team mates, all three of who were injured. Darwin had numerous bruises and cuts that bled shallowly; he was also rubbing at his hands in a strange manner. Sean had one hand pressed to his side where Angel's acid spit had gotten him, but other than that he was ignoring the other scraps and bruises that covered his body. Evie, by far, seemed to have come out of this fight the worse for wear.

Alex sprinted towards the jet, he feet sinking exasperatedly in the sand and he almost crashed into Hank who appeared out of nowhere with the Devil attached to him. He spun out of the way of their jabs and fists with wide eyes. Alex would admit to himself that there had been a time before when he thought Hank's mutation had to be the most wussiest and least effective mutation that any of them had. Now however, with his beastly overnight mutation the big guy was pretty strong and fierce…even if the fur and blueness was a bit odd.

"Azazel, stop!" The three mutants turned in surprise as Shaw stepped out from behind the jet, his expression mild. The Red Devil hesitated and stepped away from the Beast and then fell to the ground out cold when the Beast took advantage of his distraction and knocked him unconscious.

'Shaw' then shimmered and turned back into Raven who grinned at them happily, coming over in a quick bound to hug first Hank and then Alex.

"Did we get them all?" she asked excitedly and Alex shifted to the side anxiously as he turned to look into her eager golden eyes.

"We need medical attention down at the beach. Hank, grab your bag and come with me." Alex said, the frown on his face startling both mutants into action right away.

"Are you hurt as well?" Raven asked distractedly as she helped Hank stuff more items into his medical bag that they pulled from the jet as quickly as possible.

"I'm fine for now. Come on, before Sean starts killing people." Alex ran a shaking hand through his blonde hair in agitation, his heart still beating frantically like he was still fighting.

The three relatively well and whole mutants ran back across the sand. Raven slipped once as her feet sank in the loose sand and Hank grabbed her arm quickly and pulled her along behind him.

Hank quickly let go of Raven once they had arrived at the scene. He knelt down quickly at Evie's side and looked over her injuries before switching sides to be closer to her broken arm.

"We have to set the bone before we can do anything else. Raven, look for something to put in her mouth for her to bite on. Sean, I'll need you to hold down her shoulders so that she doesn't jerk her arm from me. Darwin, stay where you are but hold her legs down. Alex, I need you next to me." All of the mutants quickly got into position, listening to the orders that Hank gave them specifically and getting ready for the grisly issue of pushing the bone back into position inside of Evie's bloody arm.

"Raven, in my bag there should be a syringe with a label on it saying adrenalin, I need you ready with that on her other side. Now on my count…three, two, one." Evie screamed in absolute agony when Hank gripped the bone and her wound. She bucked wildly and Sean, Darwin and Alex struggled to hold her still as Hank pushed the bone back into the wound. With a sickening squelch, snap and click the bone slid back into place, blood rushing out from the newly disturbed wound.

Hank then grabbed Alex's hand, his covered with blood and placed a clean bandage in his team mates hand and told him to put pressure on the wound. He then took the adrenalin syringe from Raven who looked about ready to faint, her usually dark blue skin had turned a startling shade of sky blue. Hank then injected their now thankfully unconscious team mate with adrenalin to help her fluttering heart not to give out.

Pulling three bottles of water out of his medical bag Hank washed his fur covered, blood soaked hands and then the wound that Alex was still applying pressure to before wrapping the wound tightly and strapping it high on her chest to keep it from moving and hopefully slow the blood loss until they could get her to a hospital.

"She'll be alright now?" Sean asked hoarsely, his eyes never leaving Evie's pale face. Hank sat back and shook his head.

"She's stable for now but we need to get her to a hospital as soon as we can. How about the rest of you, where are you injured?"

The other mutants finally allowed themselves to take stock of their injuries now that the immediate danger was out of the way. Hank and Raven got to work on their injured team mates, assessing them and cleaning their wounds. Sean was the hardest to deal with as he seemed almost afraid that if he turned his back on Evie she would stop breathing.

"What do we do about the team of evil mutants over there?" Alex asked with raised eyebrows as he pointed in the general direction of the unconscious mutants.

"We should restrain them so that they can't attack us again." Darwin suggested and he stood up ready to do just that when Charles's angry voice reached across the beach to them.

"You left your post, Raven. That was irresponsible of you, you left Moira and I alone, with our backs exposed to danger without even a word to us. What do you have to say for yourself?" Charles asked as he stalked across the sand, Moira at his heels.

Raven's golden eyes flashed angrily and she gestured behind her to her injured teams mates.

"They needed me and the danger had been subdued." She stated.

"We needed you as well, I trusted you to be where you said you were going to be, I-"

"-I didn't say I was going to be there, you chose what we would be doing in this fight, you stopped me from going out there and fighting with my team because you wanted your precious human to be safe." Raven shouted back. She stepped right up into Charles' space and glared back at him. "I did my job, and then I helped out my team when they asked for my help. You haven't even asked if they are alright yet, Charles. Do you even care what happens to us at all?"

Charles took a step back and blinked slowly at his sister. They had fought before, many times but this seemed to be something else entirely.

"I know they are fine." Charles said distractedly and then turned back to his blue skinned sister with narrowed eyes. "They did what they were told to do. You, however, didn't. How can I trust you to watch our backs when you run off at the first sign of action? It's selfish and not how a team should work."

"Lay off, Professor X." Alex called out tiredly. He lay next to the still unconscious Evie, an arm over his eyes to shield out the sun. "We've had a rough day and we did need her."

Raven huffed in annoyance and then went back to the group of tired mutants and avoided Charles's eyes.

"What happened with Erik and Shaw?" Darwin inquired, his gaze focussed on the submarine behind them. Charles followed his gaze and ran a hand tiredly over his face.

"I can't really get a read on what is happening inside the submarine, the metal still causes static with my mutation and I am afraid that Eri-" he trailed off when the submarine wall they had been looking at peeled back and Shaw floated out of the ship with Erik right behind him, the sunlight glinting off of Shaw's helmet that he now wore on his head.

"He killed him." Hank whispered as Erik and the body of Shaw came to a halt, the latter falling to the ground, discarded.

"I have defeated our enemy just as you have defeated his forces. We are triumphant." Erik crowed and came striding towards the huddled group of his team to come to stand before his friend Charles.

"You didn't have to kill him Erik, it doesn't solve anything and he needed to pay for his crimes." Charles challenged, his blue eyes sad as he looked up at his friend.

"You do things your way and I will do it mine. He paid for his crimes with his life; I believe that is good enough. Besides, I am sure he would have found a way to escape if we had just arrested him."

"And what do you intend to do with his followers, Erik? You can't expect us to allow you to kill them all?"

"I don't think that is necessary, they were following orders and so should be held accountable for their crimes fairly." Erik said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Why are you wearing Shaw's helmet, Erik?" Charles's voice was filled with concern.

"My mind is my own Charles, I don't want anyone else in there, I-"

"-what is that?" Raven asked, pointed out over the ocean as a wave of grey dots headed towards them. "It looks like birds?" her question went unanswered as all of the mutants able to move stood up to come and see what Raven was pointing at.

"I don't think those are birds." Darwin hesitated before turning to Erik and Charles. "Are those missiles?"

Erik snarled and pointed at the sky, his expression filled with righteous anger. "Do you see Charles, the humans don't even recognise that we saved them, they are going to kill us all. We have to send them a message, we-"

"What are you talking about? Messages? Have you lost your mind? Moira, get in contact with the CIA, find out what is happening."

Moira ran back towards the jet where the radio system was and she hoped she would be able to get a hold of her contacts and find out what the hell was going on.

"The CIA are not going to be able to stop these missiles killing us all, Charles. They will not stop until we are all dead. Those are Russian and American missiles, they are working together to kill us." Erik then turned away from his friend to address the other mutants standing and staring up at the approaching weapons. He took in his team mates and the now rousing mutants who had followed Shaw and spoke with a loud voice for all of them to hear.

"The humans are trying to kill us, they want to eradicate us because they fear us, we just saved them from nuclear war and now this!" He gestured to the cloud of missiles that were getting closer to them with a grimace. "We must band together and show these humans that they cannot kill us that easily, that we have a right to be here and that we…mutants, will not go down without a fight!"

"What do you intend to do?" Raven asked, her golden eyes locked onto Erik's.

"This." He held up his arms and they all watched, stupefied as every single missile stopped in its tracks.

"Erik, don't do this, we can talk with the humans. This is the first time they have seen us in action, they don't understand what they are doing, they-"

"Don't they, Charles?" Erik asked calmly as he flicked his wrist and every missile turned around, hovering in mid air. He pulled the sleeve of his uniform up and showed Charles the branded number in his arm. "I'm sure this isn't their first contact with mutants, Charles, nor will it be the last…but I will not be exterminated by something less then I am."

Charles watched with wide, fear filled eyes as Erik smirked and then released his hold on the missiles. Charles snarled and with two long strides knelt beside the still unconscious Evie and slapped her hard across the face. He then froze Sean's violent reaction by invading his mind and taking over his body and then he turned to Evie and shook her awake. Her green eyes snapped open and then closed immediately as pain flared in her body.

"Evie, I need you to get up and save people's lives." Charles ordered angrily, he froze anyone who tried to stop him and then roughly pulled the injured girl to her feet and turned her to face the ocean, the two enemy naval ships and the horde of missiles headed for them. "Put up a shield and save those people."

Evie sagged against Charles and she shook her head. "I can't." She whined in pain when he gripped her hard on her injured arm and she almost fainted from it. Charles shook her angrily and pointed.

"If you don't do this, all of those people will die and it will be your fault because you were too weak to protect them. DO IT!"

Evie swallowed the bile that rose in her throat as pain spiked through her body and lifting her one good arm that felt like red hot pokers were driving through them she pushed with all of her might and held a force field up. The first missiles hit the shield and she buckled, the only reason she was still standing was because Charles still held her up. Erik cried out in rage and tackled Charles to the ground. Evie stumbled from the lack of support and fell down, her concentration broken and her shield fell. Her vision darkened at the corners from the pain.

"Get back up and put that shield up" Charles screamed at her from where she lay on the ground, struggling to breathe. She struggled to get back up on her feet using her one good arm for balance, she was having difficulty even knowing which way was right way up. Evie started as she felt a supporting hand behind her and turned unseeing eyes back towards the ocean.

"You can do it Evie, I'm here with you." Raven said softly and she shifted slightly to allow Sean to come next to her, his arms wrapping warmly around a struggling Evie and lifting her up.

"Just one more shield." He whispered in her ear, kissing her temple gently and brushing her tangled hair from her face.

"I can't…it hurts." She cried hoarsely, her damaged throat paining her and she swallowed convulsively.

"DO IT!" Charles shouted.

"You can, Evie." Sean reassured and he helped to lift up her shaking uninjured arm, and she cried out in agony as the shield once again formed in front of both naval ships. The missiles crashed into them, the explosions booming and echoing back towards them and the blue force field shattered. Sean hugged Evie tightly as she slumped back against him exhausted, the both of them slowly sinking down to sit in the sand. Blood dribbled down her nose from the exertion and Sean wiped it away tiredly. Raven moved away to give them both some privacy. Sean's heart pounded loudly in his ears and the rage he had felt at Charles was pushed to the side as he realised they had survived, that they were safe and that Evie was alive. He kissed Evie's temple again and curled his body around her to protect her from being disturbed by the shouting going on behind them. He ran his hand through her hair again and brushed it from her eyes that were now closed.

He knew he loved this girl, even though it had only been a short time in which they had met. She had befriended him, laughed with him and she had a way about her that drew him to her. Wherever she was…he wanted to be, too.

"It's over Erik, leave it and let's get out of here. We can talk about this somewhere else where there isn't the American and Russian Navy out there." Charles cried as both Erik and Charles continued to struggle in the sand, trying to get the upper hand.

Erik finally pushed Charles from him and stood up, brushing the sand from his uniform and he turned angrily on his friend. He however did not get the chance to say anything as they were interrupted by Moira rejoining their group at a run, her gun out and pointed straight at Erik.

"Step down Erik, the fight's over. The CIA will come and collect us for a debriefing." Moira ordered. The mutant and master of magnetism laughed and shook his head.

"And if I don't stop? Will you shoot me?" he asked condescendingly.

"If I have to. You just attacked Russian and US navy, you have a lot to answer for." Moira said with narrowed eyes. Raven snarled and launched herself at the human, pushing her to the ground and flinging the gun as far away from them all a possible.

"This is absolutely stupid, we just saved everyone's life and you start threatening us?" Raven demanded. "Erik, stop it, and Charles shut up for once. Evie is hurt and so are the rest of the team. We need to go back to the mansion, get some rest and medical treatment and then talk about this like adults. Everything will have changed now. Let's get out of here as soon as we can. You however," and here Raven was pointing at Moira, "can remain and wait for the CIA, we will contact you when we are rested, that is…if we want to continue this." She gestured vaguely between the human woman and the rest of the mutant team.

"How do you suggest we get off this island?" Charles asked with a raised eyebrow and a frown marring his face.

Raven turned to Erik and he sighed before turning to the downed jet and in no time the entire thing had rearranged itself back into the semblance of a jet and Raven let a satisfied smile grace her face. "Let's go." She commanded, making her way back to where Sean and Darwin were struggling to lift an unconscious Evie up off the ground and the team slowly trudged tiredly towards the jet, ready for home.

"What about the other mutants?" Charles questioned.

Raven shrugged and glanced disinterestedly at the roused and injured enemy mutants. "Leave them; they CIA can deal with them if they are still here when they arrive."

Erik followed the blue mutant into the jet and with an irritated look at Charles he went inside to help Hank get their injured team mates settled in.

"Will you really leave, Charles?" Moira asked, her expression annoyed and stubborn. Charles patted her on the arm and then turned to look around at the now deserted beach, their enemy had dispersed and he nodded slowly.

"My team and I have a lot to discuss. I'll see you when we are ready to talk to the CIA again."

And then he hurried in to the patched up jet and buckled in just as it lifted up, off of the ground and they flew away. They were headed home, but as Charles looked over his injured, tired and angry team he wondered how long it would remain so for many of them.

"She alright, Banshee?" The red head turned to look at Darwin who had posed the question. Darwin's dark eyes were focused on the unconscious Evie and Sean shrugged a shoulder and slumped into his seat.

"She better be. You alright there, Havoc?" The blonde snorted awake and turned to his friends with unfocused and tired, red rimmed eyes.

"Wha?"

Raven laughed quietly. "I'm glad we all survived that one." She said quietly, her golden eyes flashing with emotion as she looked over at her friends, taking note of their injuries. Her gaze swept past her brother and Erik's stiff and closed off forms as they stood at the broken windows in the cockpit while Erik flew the jet with his mutation. She turned back to her friends and grinned, flashing her white teeth.

"So…did we ever give ourselves a team name?" she asked and the mood lifted as Alex roused from his almost sleep to rub at his eyes to offer-

"Team Batman?"

"What? Noooo!" The rest of their team cried out, all of them laughing, or at least trying to laugh and not aggravate their injuries any further.

"What about Team X-men…since it's the x-gene that makes us different and gives us our mutation?" Hank suggested.

"No! That's not even original, come on…X-Men? You might as well call us X-Gene Team…actually that rhymes…" Alex contemplated for a moment before he was interrupted by Darwin who punched his shoulder lightly.

"I am not having a rhyming name for the team, that's even worse…how about-" and for the rest of the flight back to the Xavier mansion the team threw around different team names to keep their minds off of their hurts. Sean however was quiet as he sat beside Evie, his fingers tracing over her bruises and cuts. Once they were all healed he and Evie were going to have a talk and he hoped that it was going to be a good talk…one that involved a bit of kissing.

"I know, The Avengers!"

"Alex!" The rest of the team groaned as the blonde haired boy continued to rattle off potential names for their team.

XxX

TBC

Next chapter will be the final chapter, apologies for the late update and thanks for the encouraging reviews


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

_It takes all sorts to make a world_

The Xavier mansion housed many different rooms all with a specific function; however, this was the first instance where one of the rooms was being used outside of its function. The day room on the south side of the mansion had in its heyday been subject to grand visitors who enjoyed a view of the gardens and brilliant sunlight. Now it had been transformed into a medical facility, machines beeped and beds with starched sheets filled the once radiant room.

In the bed closest to the large floor to ceiling windows lay a pale blonde haired girl and beside her in a plush armchair slept a red-haired boy. He had only left her side to be seen to by Hank and the Doctor Charles had called for, Dr. Hammond.

"When do you think she'll wake up?" Raven asked quietly. She leant against the door, her arms folded across her chest and golden eyes trained on the sleeping pair.

"She was exhausted, the amount of stress her body had been under in that fight, and the length that she held on to her power…it's hard to say. The damage done to her body was extensive." Hank sighed and ran a clawed hand down his face. He turned towards his companion and looked her over with concern. "And how are you holding up? Is your back still paining you with your burns?"

Raven shrugged one shoulder and shook her head.

"I'm alright." Both were quiet for another moment, their eyes tracking the progress of the sun across the room.

"Are Charles and Erik talking to each other yet?" Hank ventured uncertainly.

Raven shook her head and huffed in annoyance. "They are worse than children. They sleep at opposite ends of the house now and leave the room if the other comes in. I'll be glad when Evie wakes up, then we can hopefully all sit down and discuss what is going to happen next."

"It didn't really go to plan did it?"

"No." Raven laughed derisively. "It pretty much went to hell in a hand basket."

They were interrupted by Darwin who tried to slip past the both of them. He waved a hand vaguely in their direction as he walked across the room and took the seat on the other side of Evie. The dark skinned mutant straightened the sheets around Evie and rearranged the flowers on the table beside her bed before he sat back with a book and started to read from it out loud.

Raven smiled at the scene and turned to her fellow blue mutant.

"At least the rest of us are still getting along." She offered positively and Hank smiled at her effort.

"But it does leave something to be desired if our leaders cannot even stand the sight of each other."

Raven patted his shoulder and turned to leave. "It'll get better." She promised and then left the room. Hank sighed once more and then walked into the new medical facility of the Xavier mansion and over to his work desk to update the medical reports of the team, updating their files from their disaster of a mission.

Sean woke up sometime later. He turned away from the low voice of Darwin who insisted on reading from the many books he had found inside the Xavier library and clenched his eyes shut tight against the sun that tried valiantly to irritate him. Giving up on the prospect of getting back to sleep the red headed mutant groaned softly as he stretched his sore muscles and tried to work out the kinks in his neck.

With a glance at the sleeping girl on the bed and noting that nothing had changed he turned his blue eyes on to his friend in the opposite chair.

"What are you reading now?" he asked, suppressing a yawn and trying vainly to smooth his hair.

"Jules Verne." Darwin replied, flashing the book's cover and then placing it face down on his knees as he turned to face his friend properly. "You really should go and get a proper rest, Sean."

Sean chucked and shook his head. "I won't get any sleep away from her. I'm afraid that if I leave then she'll stop breathing, or someone will attack her…I have all of these irrational fears." He sighed and slumped back down in his chair, running his hands through his head. "It's better if I just stay here and wait until she wakes up."

Darwin nodded his head. They sat in silence for a while longer, the only sound in the room the beeping of the machines and the rustle of paper as Darwin continued reading, only this time in silence.

"Alex should be here soon for his physical. How's the acid burn on your side by the way?" Darwin asked, breaking the silence.

Sean grimaced and patted the bandage around his torso that was hidden by a shirt.

"I was lucky it was only a little bit of her acid spit…Hank reckons if she had gotten me straight on I would be dead."

"It's a powerful mutation but-"

"-disgusting right? Spit that melts stuff? Gross." Sean finished with another laugh.

"Hey, hey you guys, have you seen the news?" Alex yelled as he rushed into the room and skidded to a halt in front of the television set that sat in the corner of the medical centre. Sean scowled and hushed him, while Hank and Darwin moved closer for a better view. Alex turned the volume up and they sat around and stared at the footage on screen.

"Is that me?" Alex asked, his finger pressed against the glass and his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Yeah…and look there's me….and Hank, Evie…Sean where are you?" Darwin inquired, turning towards their friend. Sean stood up from his chair and slowly walked towards them to have a better look at what his three friends were watching.

"I think I was still in the water then." He replied, his eyebrows raised and his hands deep in his pockets as he slouched forwards.

"What are they saying? Turn it up, Alex." Hank ordered.

They stood around the television as it showed footage of the mutants fighting against each other.

"_We are still unsure as of yet what or who these people are. The government has not given a full statement but we can confirm that they are dangerous. These mutated humans are not normal and they seem to have a predetermination towards violence against themselves as well as anyone in their way. _

_As you can see here, they have great power over military weaponry and have attacked us. This is a declaration of war against the human race. We hope to hear from the government further on this and what they advise us to do. Please be safe and stick together. Some of these mutants appear human in appearance. If you come in to contact with a mutated human we urge the public to please contact the police for your own safety. We go live now to the parliament house where Miss Kathy Bates is ready to speak to us live where as we speak the government is discussing this mutant problem, Kathy –"_

Alex muted the television and turned wide eyes onto his friends and team mates. They all held similar grave expressions.

"A declaration of war?" Hank spluttered, "That's a bit of an extreme jump in accusations."

"They don't know what was going on…maybe it's time to call Moira and find out what she has to say about all of this? Will the CIA back us up, do you think?" Alex asked, turning to Darwin who was shaking his head.

"If you look at history you will see that the government will not support those who are different. The majority of people will see this and fear us. I'm afraid I don't have much confidence in the government doing anything but painting us as terrorists. "Darwin said.

"Terrorists?" Sean raised his eyebrows at that and opened his mouth to continue when beeping from Evie's bed caught his attention. He was over to her bedside before any of the others could even comprehend what the new sounds could even mean.

"She's awake, Hank." Sean called over to their resident doctor. Hank bounded over to his side and looked down at the sleepily blinking Evie. He turned to the machines that were monitoring her vitals and quickly shut down the alarms and noises so that she wouldn't become alarmed.

The two mutants quickly reassured the alarmed looking Evie as she tried to first talk and failed and then tried to sit up and also failed in doing that. She felt so very weak and tired. Hank and Sean helped her to sit up and then to take a slow sip of water. She looked at them both and smiled gently.

"I'm fine guys, if you're worried faces are anything to go by I must be on some really good pain killers because I feel great."

Hank and Sean laughed and made room for Alex and Darwin who tried to get a look at Evie as well. Sean sat next to her on her bed and took her uninjured hand in his own, his thumb rubbing lazy circles on the back of her hand and she slanted her eyes at him.

"Are you feeling any discomfort or any strange sensations at all?" Hank asked, his large hands almost overshadowing the patient file he held. Evie looked up at him and then down at the injured arm that was wrapped and held in a sling that was bandaged to her side to keep it still.

"No, I feel fine, really…my throat is a bit scratchy though." She said and coughed. She pulled her hand away from Sean's warm one to rub at her neck and accepted the cup of water again. She placed her uninjured hand around Sean's as he lifted the cup to her lips and she sipped at it. "Thank you," she said softly, a faint blush tainting her cheeks. Sean smiled smugly and settled back against her bed's pillows beside her and made himself comfortable.

"You're welcome."

"Ok, she still needs to rest. I'll go and inform Charles and Erik that she is awake. Evie, if you need anything just ask Sean to help you." Hank said and started to usher the other two mutants out of the room.

"I'm glad you're up Evie." Darwin called out over his shoulder and Alex cheered and gave her a fist pump before all three mutants were out of the room.

"Sean," Evie said, turning to the red head beside her and was startled when instead of where she thought he was he seemed to be all that much closer. He cupped her cheek and rested his forehead against hers and sighed.

"I was worried for a while there." He confessed. He pulled back only a little to be able to search her eyes for something. Evie felt a little light headed and she hoped she wasn't about to faint because right now she wanted to remember everything that she was feeling. His warm hands framing her cheeks stroking along her bottom lip, the fluttering feeling in her chest and his warm breath on her face.

"Sean." She breathed his name and his pouty, full lips quirked into an answering smile before he lent down and captured her lips in a slow, soft kiss.

After a few minutes of continued long and soft kisses he pulled back and looked her seriously in the eyes. She blinked dazedly up at him and smiled a little dreamily as she tried to come back to reality.

"I like you Evie; I want to go steady with you." Sean said and he licked his lips nervously as he waited for her reply. Even though Sean knew his feelings towards Evie he hoped and also feared that her feelings were just as deep as his own.

Evie stared up into his blue eyes and brushed his red hair from his forehead with her working arm and placed her hand on his heart.

"I wouldn't have kissed you back, Sean, if I wasn't serious. I thought that was obvious." She waited for a few seconds and when he didn't react she brought her face closer to his again and with their lips almost touching she whispered, "I like you too." And then she kissed him just as heatedly and passionately as they had back on the jet however many days ago it had been since she had been awake.

Sean was surprised first with the kiss and then when she pulled away from him abruptly and put her hand over her mouth. Startled and a little worried that maybe he had hurt her he stood up from her bed.

"What? What? Are you alright? Do you hurt somewhere?"

Evie looked up at Sean with wide green eyes and she shook her head.

"Then, what? What's wrong?" Sean asked frantically.

Without removing the hand from her mouth she replied. "I'm very sure that I have terribly bad morning breath, Sean…I've been unconscious for a while and…I don't want to kiss you with bad breath."

The confession had Sean laughing and collapsing back into the chair he had spent the better part of three days in while Evie blushed behind her hand.

XxX

It was another two days after Evie had woken from what Hank called an exhaustion coma before they were able to convene in the war room with all of their team well enough and awake enough to sit and discuss their future.

"I assume that everyone has seen the news broadcasts on the television?" Charles asked redundantly, he still would not look in Erik's direction and the latter mutant still had Shaw's helmet on his head. The rest of the gathered mutants nodded their heads anyway and sat back in their seats.

"I believe that if we go about the room and state what each of us would personally like for the future then we can proceed from there." Looking at the mutant next to him he indicated Alex to start. The blonde mutant cleared his throat and stared down at his hands for a moment before hiding them under the table and looking up at the others.

"I don't want to go back to jail. I want to stay here and work as a team in saving people from dangerous mutants but also providing a place for mutants to live and not be shunned or have to hide who they are. Being here in this mansion and learning to control my mutation that scared me, that was the reason why I was in solitary confinement in jail… I don't want others to have to go through that. They shouldn't have to." He stopped talking and sat back in his chair, he didn't really have anything else to say and he turned to Darwin beside him.

The shifter took a moment to compose his mind and then placed his hands flat on the table in front of him.

"I want to live here, at the mansion and help mutants learn to control their mutations. My mutation is unique enough that I'm almost indestructible. I don't want to go back out there in the world alone when I know that I am a part of something greater. I have been a part of a team, I have friends and I don't have to hide anything about myself. You all accept me for who I am." He smiled gently and then turned to Evie. The blonde mutant shifted in her chair and blinked her eyes sleepily. She was still heavily drugged on pain killers and so sometimes drifted in and out of consciousness.

"You are my family, I'm staying here. I want to continue what we have been doing, capturing dangerous mutants and providing a safe haven for those who have nowhere else to go." She sighed and slumped down in her chair, her head coming to rest on Sean's shoulder. The red head looked down at her for a moment and shrugged.

"Same here, there's no going back." He said and then looked at Hank who rubbed his hairy hands together.

"I can't go back into normal society, I have no way of blending in with others and most humans I am sure would run screaming from me. I would like to stay here and continue my research as well as my studies if that is alright, Charles?"

Charles nodded his head and then reluctantly he turned to look at his friend with weary eyes. Erik sat very still and stiffly, an angry look on his face.

"What about the humans? I am afraid for our kind and the danger that we have inadvertently put them in with our actions. I have seen the rioting and the fear and I have experienced once already what fear can do when you are on the wrong side of it. They will capture us and put us into prisons or camps; they will experiment on us or massacre us all. Humans will turn against us…and I don't plan for that to happen."

"And what are you going to do, Erik? Kill the humans? Do the exact same thing to them that you fear will happen to us? Because if that is your plan then you are just as bad as they are." Charles countered. Erik glared at his friend for a moment and shook his head, his jaw clenched tight.

"No, but I will not stand back and watch as we are rounded up and slaughtered."

"That's not what I am asking you to do, Erik, I don't want that any more then you do. We just can't go around killing humans and mutants left right and centre though."

"Then what do you suggest?" Erik asked through his clenched teeth.

"What the rest of the team has said they want, Erik, they want to protect the mutants and give them a place to come and learn how to control their powers, but they also want to stop the dangerous mutants from harming anyone in the public, whether they be human or mutant. We can keep our team, train together and go out there and rescue our brothers and sisters."

"If I could interject here since you seem to have skipped me altogether," Raven said with a hand in the air, her golden eyes held a strange glint to them. "I would like to address the fact that the both of you seem to believe you are the leaders of our group. It is this fact then I have issues with it."

Both Erik and Charles turned to look at the woman sitting between them with narrowed eyes. Raven then cleared her throat and lifted up her hand and pointed to her first finger to count out her points.

"One: Charles, you will never again stop our actions with your mind, two: any decisions will be discussed with the group, for example who has the best suited mutation for certain jobs. Three: you will not leave me behind all of the time and underestimate my worth as a member of this team. Four: you will work out your differences and present a united leadership or we will vote someone else for leader and lastly, five: if you decide to work with humans they are never to set foot in the mansion if this is to be our safe haven because I am sick of hiding my mutation and feeling uncomfortable in my own skin because they always stare." Raven then folded her hands back into her lap and sat back to catch everyone expressions.

Evie was smiling against Sean's shoulder and he was smirking back at the blue skinned mutant with pride. Alex was nodding his head in agreement and Darwin gave two thumbs up to show his support.

"I…well..er," Charles was a little lost for words and turned to Erik for support.

"I can agree to those terms. So we are going to be a team of mutants that rescue and extract those of our kind, apprehenders of mutants of a dangerous nature and teachers to mutants wanting a place to learn in safety. Does that sum up what we will be doing from now on?" Erik asked with a raised eyebrow and a hand rubbing his chin in thought.

"Yes," the group of mutants around the war room table said together, all of them smiling happily at the now calm and thoughtful air in the room.

"If I can ask…how are we going to be able to find other mutants?" Evie asked. Charles tilted his head to the side and then unrolled a piece of schematic paper onto the table and pointed at the design.

"I believe that if I can get Erik to help me we can construct a similar machine that Hank designed before to help us to find more mutants, the Cerebro. We can construct it in the basement and I think we will need to redesign a lot of the mansion if we are going to be bringing more mutants here to live and practice their mutations." The others around the table began offering ideas of new improvements that could be done to enhance the mansion and they were all laughing and joking with one another in no time. The tension leaked from their bodies slowly and they were able to relax and be comfortable with each other again.

"Good, I can work with this." Erik said once the conversation quietened and then turned to Charles. "So what do we call ourselves?"

Alex raised his hand and with a slight grimace he offered, "The X-men. It was the only one we all didn't think sucked the most…and everyone else shot down my ideas."

"Very well, we are now the X-men." Charles said and placed his hand in front of him and smiled when Raven placed her blue hand on top of his. The others in their team quickly followed suit, Evie and Sean placing their joined hands on top of everyone else's and with huge grins and buoyant hearts for their future they looked into each other's eyes as the gathered mutants at the Xavier mansion all shouted together -

"The X-MEN!"

XxX

The beginning

I want to thank all of my readers for their reviews and I hope that you enjoyed the story.


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